Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. cut its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 143,283 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 25,624 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $7,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the third quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 5,249 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 11,372 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $605,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meridian Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 5,020 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.29 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $59.87. The company has a market cap of $236.14 billion, a PE ratio of 25.45, a PEG ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $55.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.45.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 339,479 shares of company stock worth $19,490,991. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group upped their target price 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

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.