Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA Reduces Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 36.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 206,370 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 118,342 shares during the quarter. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $12,217,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSCO. State Street Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after purchasing an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. UBS Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $64.14 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $61.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.