Financial Insights Inc. Reduces Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Financial Insights Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 52.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,368 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 4,880 shares during the period. Financial Insights Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $259,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $204,000. American Investment Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.5% in the 4th quarter. American Investment Services Inc. now owns 10,846 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920 shares during the last quarter. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $252,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $232,307,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4%

NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $62.81. 25,829,006 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,320,818. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $59.30 and a 200 day moving average of $60.10. The stock has a market cap of $248.73 billion, a PE ratio of 27.43, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total value of $952,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 131,676 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,616 shares of company stock worth $2,640,095. Company 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.