Insider Selling: Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) EVP Sells 11,808 Shares of Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.27 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. 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 $255.68 billion, a PE ratio of 28.07, a PEG ratio of 4.16 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 return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

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

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 171,490 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,127,000 after purchasing an additional 10,895 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 8,586,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $452,526,000 after buying an additional 347,061 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 169,711 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smith Salley Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.9% in the third quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 68,758 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,659,000 after purchasing an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

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.