Ninety One UK Ltd Lowers Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ninety One UK Ltd lessened its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 28.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 203,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 82,417 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $12,050,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $502,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on CSCO. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $62.57 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $59.52 and its 200 day moving average is $54.77. 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 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.71. The stock has a market cap of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This 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 valued at $20,349,721 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.