Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 0.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,947,050 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 17,681 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.12% of Cisco Systems worth $305,282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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. New Street Research reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $69.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the firm'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 owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. This trade represents a 1.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total transaction of $1,027,222.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 309,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. The trade was a 4.82% 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 worth $6,271,054. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO traded up $1.05 on Friday, hitting $69.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 17,973,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,350,689. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $63.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.48. The firm has a market cap of $275.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.15 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

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.