Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Cuts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lowered its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,526 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 215 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $55.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $221.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.08. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS 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 anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.