Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 88,531 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lessened its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,323,953 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 88,531 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.06% of Cisco Systems worth $137,578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ethic Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 431,762 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $25,560,000 after purchasing an additional 6,122 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 130.0% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 1,652,111 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $97,805,000 after buying an additional 933,859 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 15,632,643 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $925,452,000 after acquiring an additional 301,684 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,047,789 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $180,429,000 after acquiring an additional 221,864 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Global Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC now owns 12,898 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $764,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $65.05.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2%

CSCO traded up $0.11 on Tuesday, hitting $61.78. 18,554,174 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,307,771. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $245.78 billion, a PE ratio of 26.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.