First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 185,747 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 8,058 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up 2.5% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $11,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $413,491,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7,096.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,718,402 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $414,593,000 after buying an additional 6,625,045 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CSCO. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $69.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 309,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,281,257.36. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,185 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total transaction of $265,789.35. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,103 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,419,921.53. The trade was a 9.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of CSCO opened at $68.65 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $69.22. The company has a market capitalization of $271.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $62.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.12.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 66.94%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.

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