US Bancorp DE Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• US Bancorp DE reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. by 1.9%, now owning approximately 3.95 million shares worth around $243.5 million.
• Several hedge funds significantly increased their positions in Cisco, with FMR LLC boosting its stake by 20.8% and Pacer Advisors by a massive 1,144.2% in the 1st quarter.
• Analysts generally show optimism towards Cisco with eight hold ratings, sixteen buy ratings, and two strong buy ratings, reflecting a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."

US Bancorp DE lowered its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 1.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,946,235 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 75,815 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE owned 0.10% of Cisco Systems worth $243,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,144.2% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 8,120,886 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $501,140,000 after acquiring an additional 7,468,212 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $413,491,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7,096.5% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,718,402 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $414,593,000 after acquiring an additional 6,625,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 187.9% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $442,749,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,747 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. New Street Research reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an "in-line" rating and set a $72.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $68.08 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.66. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $69.78. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $269.60 billion, a PE ratio of 27.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.90.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released 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 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Cisco Systems's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total value of $57,778.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 255,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,413,079.79. This represents a 0.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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