Strategic Advocates LLC Sells 2,768 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Strategic Advocates LLC lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 22.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,768 shares during the quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $567,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third 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 lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during 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 buying an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in 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 buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after purchasing an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on CSCO shares. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.5 %

CSCO stock opened at $60.47 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $59.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.35. The company has a market cap of $240.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.