Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Reduces Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec trimmed its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 76.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,598,125 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 8,380,405 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $138,272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 339,479 shares of company stock valued at $19,490,991. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $59.21 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $235.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $59.87. The company’s fifty day moving average is $55.83 and its 200-day moving average is $50.52.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $0.40 dividend. 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 2.70%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. HSBC raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Hsbc Global Res raised Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

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.