Abacus Planning Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,485 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 989 shares during the quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hickory Point Bank & Trust increased its position in Cisco Systems by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Hickory Point Bank & Trust now owns 14,168 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $874,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares during the period. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.1% in the first quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. now owns 4,788 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 360 shares in the last quarter. Wynn Capital LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.4% during the first quarter. Wynn Capital LLC now owns 48,319 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,982,000 after acquiring an additional 10,094 shares during the period. City Center Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth $224,000. Finally, ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.4% in the first quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 146,908 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,066,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total value of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at $44,478,105.49. This trade represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 71,400 shares of company stock valued at $4,564,439 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $66.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $261.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $59.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.36.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

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.