Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC Acquires 1,670 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 13.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,831 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,670 shares during the quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,796,505,000 after buying an additional 4,832,813 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 36,471,275 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,159,099,000 after buying an additional 2,637,006 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,419,041 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,741,597,000 after acquiring an additional 681,555 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $65.51 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $60.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $259.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.11.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 688,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,478,105.49. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total value of $612,330.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,505,311. This represents a 5.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 72,931 shares of company stock valued at $4,671,930 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.