Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Sentry LLC

Sentry LLC lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,781 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 673 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 0.3% of Sentry LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Sentry LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. State Street Corp boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $59.55 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.32. The company has a market cap of $237.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $62.31.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.