Dearborn Partners LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Dearborn Partners LLC has reduced its holdings in Cisco Systems by 23.1%, totaling $951,000 in value after selling 4,641 shares in the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors increased their stakes in Cisco Systems, with Pacer Advisors raising their stake by 1,144.2%, now owning over 8 million shares.
• Cisco Systems announced a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, representing an annualized yield of 2.41%, with a payout ratio of 66.94%.

Dearborn Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 23.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,412 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 4,641 shares during the period. Dearborn Partners LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.5% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,392,000 after buying an additional 24,562 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 37.0% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $542,000 after buying an additional 2,474 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 50.3% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,627,956 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $392,375,000 after buying an additional 2,219,311 shares during the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 55.0% during the 4th quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 82,275 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,871,000 after buying an additional 29,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 243,781 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $14,432,000 after buying an additional 14,626 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $1.30 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $66.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,724,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,085,338. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $66.79 and a 200-day moving average of $62.66. The company has a market capitalization of $264.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.24, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.90. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $69.78.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business's revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 66.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. CICC Research started coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $78.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an "in-line" rating and issued a $72.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $70.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,726 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total transaction of $571,902.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 174,669 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,447,806.26. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total value of $57,778.73. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 255,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,413,079.79. This trade represents a 0.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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.