Ritholtz Wealth Management Increases Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Key Points

• Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in Cisco by 15.6% in Q4, adding 15,257 shares to hold 112,910 shares valued at about $8.70 million.
• Cisco beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $1.04 (vs. $1.02) and revenue of $15.35B (vs. $15.11B), reported 9.7% revenue growth year-over-year, and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.42 (2.0% yield).
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a $89.76 price target; notable upgrades include Evercore to "outperform" with a $100 target.

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 15.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 112,910 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 15,257 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $8,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 96.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 408 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 115.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 468 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holos Integrated Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Evercore upgraded Cisco Systems from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. President Capital cut their price objective on Cisco Systems from $90.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 24th. Finally, CICC Research lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $89.76.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of CSCO opened at $82.22 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $79.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $324.76 billion, a PE ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.83 and a fifty-two week high of $88.18.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $15.35 billion during 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%.Cisco Systems's revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 11,248 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $854,848.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 262,776 shares in the company, valued at $19,970,976. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,981 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.50, for a total value of $634,489.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 187,097 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,874,211.50. The trade was a 4.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 46,431 shares of company stock worth $3,574,820 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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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