Strategic Financial Services Inc. Has $1.60 Million Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Strategic Financial Services Inc. reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,957 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,981 shares during the quarter. Strategic Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,596,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third 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 lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 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 $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $61.12 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.97. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a market capitalization of $243.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems 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.