Access Financial Services Inc. Invests $823,000 in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Access Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 16,294 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $823,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, VitalStone Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $49.91 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.93. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $45.56 and a twelve month high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 47.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.42.

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.