Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Staley Capital Advisers Inc.

Staley Capital Advisers Inc. trimmed its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 633,989 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 24,958 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up 1.7% of Staley Capital Advisers Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Staley Capital Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $37,532,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 2.9 %

CSCO opened at $62.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $246.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $61.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.53. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,348 shares of company stock worth $4,318,181. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.