Equitable Trust Co. Raises Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Equitable Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 62,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,679,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $62.27 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.04. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $63.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $248.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders 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 2.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.72.

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.