Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is Willis Investment Counsel's 2nd Largest Position

Willis Investment Counsel lessened its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 16.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 743,860 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 146,982 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 3.1% of Willis Investment Counsel's investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Willis Investment Counsel's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $45,904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tallon Kerry Patrick acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $603,000. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,392,000 after acquiring an additional 24,562 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 2,474 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $541,000. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $253,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total transaction of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 131,676 shares in the company, valued at $8,365,376.28. This represents a 10.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total value of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at $44,478,105.49. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 72,931 shares of company stock worth $4,671,930. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.6%

Cisco Systems stock traded down $1.01 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $64.09. The stock had a trading volume of 14,630,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,142,195. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. 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's fifty day simple moving average is $60.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $253.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Cisco Systems's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

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.