Verity & Verity LLC Buys 42,523 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Verity & Verity LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 395,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 42,523 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up 2.1% of Verity & Verity LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $23,420,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 25.1% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 113,906 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,743,000 after acquiring an additional 22,871 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 9,168 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 5,897 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after buying an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $96,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 20,363 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,205,000 after buying an additional 2,378 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $60.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.87 and a 200-day moving average of $53.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Profile

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.