Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Down 0.2% – Here’s What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s share price traded down 0.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $62.91 and last traded at $63.85. 4,529,005 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 19,571,031 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.96.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday. UBS Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $252.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.68, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $3,297,905,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.