Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. Sells 200,224 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. trimmed its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 18.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 875,018 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 200,224 shares during the quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $51,801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $560,722,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 143.2% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,986,627 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $295,208,000 after buying an additional 2,936,567 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 50.3% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,627,956 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $392,375,000 after buying an additional 2,219,311 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $55.73 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $60.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.18. The stock has a market cap of $221.69 billion, a PE ratio of 24.33, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. 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 has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.58.

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.