Baird Financial Group Inc. Trims Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. by 9.6%, selling 343,965 shares during the first quarter, leaving them with 3,231,117 shares valued at approximately $199.4 million.
• Insider trading activity included CEO Charles Robbins selling over 30,000 shares, leading to a 4.56% decrease in his ownership, while other insiders also sold shares, totaling $7.84 million in the past 90 days.
• Cisco Systems recently reported quarterly earnings of $0.99 EPS, exceeding analysts' expectations, and announced a $0.41 quarterly dividend scheduled for payment in October.

Baird Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 9.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,231,117 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 343,965 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of Cisco Systems worth $199,392,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 37.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 46,973,293 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,898,722,000 after acquiring an additional 12,775,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $750,495,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,144.2% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 8,120,886 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $501,140,000 after acquiring an additional 7,468,212 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $413,491,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7,096.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,718,402 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $414,593,000 after acquiring an additional 6,625,045 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $87.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Hsbc Global Res cut Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, KeyCorp initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $74.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,061 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.60, for a total transaction of $603,462.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 237,405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,811,173. This represents a 3.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,783 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.60, for a total transaction of $651,547.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 161,662 shares in the company, valued at $10,766,689.20. The trade was a 5.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 119,095 shares of company stock worth $7,841,167 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $69.09. 14,952,208 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,349,072. The stock has a market cap of $273.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.85 and a 12-month high of $72.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $68.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.77.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $14.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 18.45%.Cisco Systems's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. Cisco Systems has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.970-0.990 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 4.000-4.060 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 62.60%.

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.