Bouchey Financial Group Ltd Increases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bouchey Financial Group Ltd boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,660 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $394,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Shoker Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 61,745 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Fusion Capital LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Fusion Capital LLC now owns 119,554 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,078,000 after purchasing an additional 3,746 shares in the last quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 38,611 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,286,000 after purchasing an additional 11,451 shares in the last quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 181,902 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,769,000 after purchasing an additional 5,734 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 790,217 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,781,000 after purchasing an additional 35,006 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $253.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.86, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $61.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.66.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CSCO. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.