Deborah L. Stahlkopf Sells 11,808 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.74 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $63.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 17,269,516 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,692,420. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $251.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day moving average is $60.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.30. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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%. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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 paid 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 dividend yield of 2.59%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.87%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price 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 MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 171,490 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,127,000 after purchasing an additional 10,895 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 8,586,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $452,526,000 after purchasing an additional 347,061 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 169,711 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,032,000 after buying an additional 1,046 shares during the period. Finally, Smith Salley Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 68,758 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,659,000 after buying an additional 580 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.