Merlin Capital Inc Purchases 998 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Merlin Capital Inc grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 13.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,358 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 998 shares during the period. Merlin Capital Inc’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Waddell & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the third quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 24,693 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,328,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the third quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,686 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $306,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the period. Winch Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 19.3% during the third quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 36,587 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,967,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gill Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.2% in the third quarter. Gill Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,155 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup began coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of CSCO traded down $0.70 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $47.08. 5,777,577 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,091,309. The company has a market cap of $190.64 billion, a PE ratio of 14.52, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $48.92 and its 200-day moving average is $49.97. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $45.56 and a 52 week high of $58.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.40%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was 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 owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company 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.