Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Trims Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,530 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 475 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. United Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $528,000. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $226,000. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.2% in the third quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 33,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,786,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balentine LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 121.7% in the third quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 11,153 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $594,000 after purchasing an additional 6,123 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.1 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.96 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $254.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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.