Wright Investors Service Inc. Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Wright Investors Service Inc. cut its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 41.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 45,930 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 32,343 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for about 0.9% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,719,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $58.76 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $234.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.26.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at $12,596,059. This trade represents a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on CSCO. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.28.

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.