Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Sells 226,493 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 40.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 329,744 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 226,493 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $19,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,419,041 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,741,597,000 after buying an additional 681,555 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $988,499,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195,469 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $63.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $65.05.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.1 %

Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $57.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,804,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,183,676. The company has a market capitalization of $228.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $59.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.