Cliff Asness Stock Portfolio: 5 Top Stock Picks

4. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) makes and sells networking and other products. Latest data reveals that AQR Capital Management owned over 11.3 million shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) at the end of the third quarter of 2023 worth $611 million, representing 1.26% of the portfolio. 

On November 16, investment advisory Evercore maintained an In Line rating on Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) stock and lowered the price target to $55 from $63, noting the firm posted strong upside in the October-end quarter. 

At the end of the second quarter of 2023, 55 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $1.4 billion in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), compared to 61 in the previous quarter worth $2.4 billion.

Here is what Oakmark Funds has to say about Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:

“Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the leading networking solutions company. Networking equipment becomes more important as businesses modernize their IT infrastructure, and Cisco is well positioned to capture this demand given its broad portfolio and highly effective go-to-market strategy. Cisco is transitioning away from selling mainly transactional hardware and toward selling more software and subscriptions. This shift is expected to accelerate revenue growth, improve operating margins and build recurring revenue. Despite these notable business improvements, Cisco still trades near a trough valuation relative to the S&P 500 Index. More recently, Cisco announced its intention to acquire Splunk, a leader in security and observability, adding to its already strong position in the increasingly important security market. At a low-teens multiple of our estimate of normalized earnings, Cisco is trading comfortably below our estimate of intrinsic value.”