Amundi Decreases Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Amundi lessened its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,272,456 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 514,936 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises about 0.5% of Amundi’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Amundi owned about 0.66% of Cisco Systems worth $1,555,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.94 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $254.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $61.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.34.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,348 shares of company stock worth $4,318,181. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

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.