Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

Key Points

• The State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its stake in Cisco Systems by 8.9%, selling 132,581 shares, and now holds approximately $83.36 million worth of the stock.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $72.90 for Cisco shares, with various firms providing upgraded ratings and price targets ranging from $71.00 to $77.00.
• Cisco Systems recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.41, which will be paid on October 22nd, reflecting an annualized yield of 2.4%.

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 8.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,350,898 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 132,581 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $83,364,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.7% during the first quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 892,064 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $55,049,000 after purchasing an additional 6,501 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.8% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,298 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $389,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 28.9% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,037,909 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $249,180,000 after purchasing an additional 904,548 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 44.6% during the fourth quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 193,478 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $11,454,000 after purchasing an additional 59,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.6% in the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 111,510 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $6,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,839 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total transaction of $154,072.07. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total value of $57,778.73. Following the transaction, the insider owned 255,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,413,079.79. This trade represents a 0.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 77,731 shares of company stock worth $5,021,519 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $87.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. William Blair upgraded Cisco Systems to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $74.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $3.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $66.20. The company had a trading volume of 40,854,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,656,640. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $67.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $63.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $262.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.91. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $47.85 and a 12 month high of $72.55.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $14.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 18.45%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 EPS. As a group, equities research 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 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.