Access Financial Services Inc. Purchases New Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

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

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 347,569,395 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,983,240,000 after purchasing an additional 5,924,553 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 187,505,879 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,701,554,000 after purchasing an additional 2,626,429 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,943,593,000 after purchasing an additional 9,160,347 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after buying an additional 1,790,717 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. 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 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.42.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $49.91 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $49.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.93. The company 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.56 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

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.