HighTower Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.3% in the first quarter, owning approximately 5.4 million shares worth around $335 million after purchasing an additional 801,601 shares.
• Cisco reported quarterly earnings of $0.96 per share, exceeding estimates, with revenue of $14.15 billion, an increase of 11.4% compared to the previous year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, which translates to an annualized yield of 2.3%.

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 17.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,436,337 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 801,601 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.14% of Cisco Systems worth $335,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,392,000 after purchasing an additional 24,562 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 37.0% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 2,474 shares during the period. Peninsula Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Peninsula Wealth LLC now owns 9,448 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $559,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the period. Mariner LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 2,070,959 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $122,600,000 after purchasing an additional 224,528 shares during the period. Finally, Icon Advisers Inc. Co. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Icon Advisers Inc. Co. now owns 65,390 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 11,490 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the company'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 owned 688,409 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,478,105.49. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 257,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,450,653.14. This trade represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $1.07 on Wednesday, reaching $70.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 37,526,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,563,762. The company has a market capitalization of $278.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.91. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.04 and a 52-week high of $72.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.01. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. Cisco Systems's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.55.

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.