Equity Investment Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Equity Investment Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 99.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,775 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 1,244,102 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Welch & Forbes LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.3% during the first quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 653,597 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $40,334,000 after purchasing an additional 14,845 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 520,602 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $32,126,000 after buying an additional 2,760 shares in the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at about $259,000. DecisionPoint Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 34.9% during the 1st quarter. DecisionPoint Financial LLC now owns 1,093 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BIP Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 9,520 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $587,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. 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 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. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.25 on Friday, hitting $68.05. The stock had a trading volume of 16,138,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,295,616. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $65.84 and a 200-day moving average of $62.09. 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 company has a market capitalization of $269.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.90. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $69.78.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The company's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total value of $1,027,222.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 309,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the company'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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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.