Morningstar Investment Management LLC Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Morningstar Investment Management LLC has reduced its stake in Cisco Systems by 23.7%, ending the first quarter with a position valued at $1.37 million, after selling 6,896 shares.
• Several large investors have increased their holdings in Cisco during the fourth quarter, with Brighton Jones LLC raising its position by 49.5% and AllianceBernstein L.P. boosting theirs by 50.3%.
• Cisco recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.41, with an annualized dividend yield of 2.41%, and the company reported a 11.4% year-over-year growth in revenue for the last quarter.

Morningstar Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 23.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,142 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 6,896 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,366,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,392,000 after acquiring an additional 24,562 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake 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. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $181,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 50.3% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,627,956 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $392,375,000 after acquiring an additional 2,219,311 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Financial LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 55.0% in the 4th quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 82,275 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,871,000 after buying an additional 29,187 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.98 on Friday, hitting $67.10. The company had a trading volume of 13,133,503 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,159,105. The stock has a market capitalization of $265.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.90. 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 50 day moving average of $66.79 and a 200-day moving average of $62.66. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $69.78.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 66.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI restated an "in-line" rating and issued a $72.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Eight investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $70.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 688,409 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,478,105.49. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was 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 owned 309,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,281,257.36. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 in the last three months. Corporate 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.