Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Position Trimmed by Bedel Financial Consulting Inc.

Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,235 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,892,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth approximately $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.48 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $252.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.06.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its 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 return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.