Boston Partners Cuts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Boston Partners cut its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,644,951 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 23,450 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned 0.09% of Cisco Systems worth $215,826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased 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 worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during 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 increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $60.30 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $61.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.94. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.33, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.