Archer Investment Corp Decreases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Archer Investment Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 23,414 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 488 shares during the period. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Telos Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. now owns 321,894 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $16,262,000 after acquiring an additional 6,047 shares during the period. KLCM Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. KLCM Advisors Inc. now owns 287,072 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $14,503,000 after purchasing an additional 33,381 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Guidance Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 14,619 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $738,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865 shares during the period. Finally, Sfmg LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 110,215 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,568,000 after buying an additional 19,545 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. Melius Research restated a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $47.97. 7,178,307 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,474,271. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.32. The company has a market cap of $194.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.63%.

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.