Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Sells 112,649 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.8%, now holding 2,251,102 shares, representing 1% of its portfolio.
• Research analysts have upgraded Cisco's ratings and price targets, with Wells Fargo raising the target from $75 to $83, and a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" across multiple firms.
• Cisco announced a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 2.4%, with the payment date set for October 22nd.

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 4.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,251,102 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 112,649 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises 1.0% of Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC owned 0.06% of Cisco Systems worth $138,916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 892,064 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $55,049,000 after purchasing an additional 6,501 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.8% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,298 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $389,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 28.9% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,037,909 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $249,180,000 after purchasing an additional 904,548 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 44.6% in the fourth quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 193,478 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $11,454,000 after purchasing an additional 59,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.6% in the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 111,510 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $6,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,839 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $87.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $74.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total transaction of $154,072.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,027 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total value of $57,778.73. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 255,377 shares in the company, valued at $16,413,079.79. This represents a 0.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,731 shares of company stock worth $5,021,519 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 4.5%

CSCO traded down $3.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $66.20. The stock had a trading volume of 40,854,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,656,640. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $47.85 and a one year high of $72.55. The company has a market capitalization of $262.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock's 50 day moving average is $67.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.36.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 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 revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

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.