Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA Sells 10,985 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA cut its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 26.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 29,821 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 10,985 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,765,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. Allstate Corp bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,581,000. ESG Planning DBA Harper Investing raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. ESG Planning DBA Harper Investing now owns 12,451 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $737,000 after purchasing an additional 1,621 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 132,074 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $7,819,000 after purchasing an additional 13,911 shares during the period. RiverFront Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 6,659 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 1,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alerus Financial NA increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Alerus Financial NA now owns 116,386 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,890,000 after buying an additional 4,176 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.86 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $242.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $62.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.47. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.