Howard Capital Management Inc. Has $6.86 Million Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Howard Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Cisco Systems by 15.2%, selling 19,944 shares during the first quarter, leaving them with 111,119 shares valued at approximately $6.86 million.
• Insider transactions included CFO Richard Scott Herren selling 15,678 shares for over $1 million, while insiders overall sold 97,335 shares valued at $6.27 million in the last ninety days.
• Cisco Systems recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 2.41% and a dividend payout ratio of 66.94%.

Howard Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 15.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 111,119 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 19,944 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,857,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 2,070 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,100 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advantage Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advantage Inc. now owns 17,361 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,028,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.5% in the first quarter. Wealthstream Advisors Inc. now owns 3,687 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.9% during the first quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 5,232 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total value of $48,821.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 36,937 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,553.59. The trade was a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total transaction of $154,072.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $1.30 on Friday, reaching $66.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,724,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,085,338. The firm has a market cap of $264.47 billion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $66.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.66. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $69.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

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.