SFE Investment Counsel Reduces Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

SFE Investment Counsel cut its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 62,767 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 553 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 57.7% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $273,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth $58,000. Creative Planning grew its position in Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,155,964 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $60,979,000 after purchasing an additional 38,000 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% in 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. Finally, Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.7% during the third quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 287,979 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $15,424,000 after buying an additional 15,489 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.53 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $249.04 billion, a PE ratio of 26.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $63.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on CSCO shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded 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 research report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.22.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.