Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,303,803 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 32,776 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up about 0.9% of Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $77,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $60.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,139,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,841,296. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $238.97 billion, a PE ratio of 25.75, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,596,059. This represents a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% 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.