Ellsworth Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 87,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 714 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 1.4% of Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 13,401 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 14,831 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.9% during the third quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 20,996 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,129,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. Cassia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the third quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,950 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $750,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. Finally, Waddell & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 24,693 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,328,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Melius lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.3 %

CSCO traded up $0.14 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $49.91. 18,137,448 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,930,795. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.93. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.56 and a 1-year high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.42%.

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.