Charles Robbins Sells 31,983 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $64.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $258.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 69.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, 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. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Pflug Koory LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 2,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $123,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $449,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,100 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% 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.