Merit Financial Group LLC Grows Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Key Points

• Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Cisco by 11.1% in Q4, buying 26,122 shares to hold 262,146 shares worth about $20.19 million.
• Cisco beat Q2 estimates with EPS of $1.04 and revenue of $15.35 billion (up 9.7% YoY), an AI-driven networking surge that has spurred analyst upgrades (JPMorgan raised its target to $96) and a consensus price target near $89.81.
• Cisco boosted its quarterly dividend to $0.42 (annualized $1.68, ~2.0% yield), while insiders have been net sellers recently — insiders sold 46,431 shares (~$3.57M) over the last 90 days, including CEO Charles Robbins selling 19,545 shares.

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 11.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 262,146 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 26,122 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $20,193,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 96.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 408 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 115.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 468 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Finally, Holos Integrated Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 19,545 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $1,485,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 671,095 shares of the company's stock, valued at $51,003,220. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,744 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.07, for a total transaction of $134,410.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 156,693 shares in the company, valued at $12,076,329.51. This trade represents a 1.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 46,431 shares of company stock valued at $3,574,820 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Cisco Systems

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target to $96 and kept an "overweight" rating, signaling analyst conviction and upward earnings/valuation expectations for CSCO. JPMorgan price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 FY26 results and commentary point to an AI-driven networking surge (reported ~21% revenue growth), supporting the view that infrastructure spend is strengthening. Cisco's AI networking surge
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Cisco is in advanced talks to buy Astrix Security, which would expand Cisco's AI-agent security and subscription-software strategy if completed. Cisco Astrix talks
• Positive Sentiment: Partner ecosystem momentum: Endace announced integrations with many security platforms, including Cisco XDR, underscoring sustained enterprise demand for packet capture and Cisco security tooling. Endace partner program
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector note — Ciena's large rally on AI/cloud demand shows strong investor appetite for networking/infra names, which can lift interest in Cisco as a larger peer. Ciena surge
• Neutral Sentiment: Market coverage: a Zacks roundup noted CSCO has outperformed recently, reflecting the same positive drivers above but not adding new fundamental data. Zacks market roundup
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded Cisco from "strong-buy" to "hold," which could temper momentum from upgrades if other shops follow. Zacks downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha piece warns that the $28B Splunk deal tripled Cisco's debt and compressed free cash flow, arguing valuation risks and limited dividend upside until FCF recovers. Seeking Alpha FCF analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst/market caution pieces note that growth can be volatile in networking names and stress the need to monitor margin and cash-flow recovery post-M&A. Growth stock caution

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Argus raised shares of Cisco Systems to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research cut shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, CICC Research increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $89.81.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.6%

CSCO opened at $84.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $333.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.83 and a 12 month high of $88.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $79.83 and a 200 day moving average of $76.54.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $15.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.11 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 19.22%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be given a $0.42 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 58.95%.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.

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