Private Portfolio Partners LLC Reduces Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Private Portfolio Partners LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,058 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 657 shares during the quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $359,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 39.5% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 440,169 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $26,058,000 after acquiring an additional 124,529 shares in the last quarter. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $294,000. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 64,991 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,847,000 after purchasing an additional 2,452 shares in the last quarter. May Hill Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $376,000. Finally, Centric Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 6,260 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 1,317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $61.82 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $62.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.79. 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 stock has a market cap of $245.94 billion, a PE ratio of 27.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly 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%. Equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company 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 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 2.65%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 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 $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems 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.