Thompson Investment Management Inc. Sells 1,582 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Thompson Investment Management Inc. trimmed its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 171,666 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,582 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 1.5% of Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $10,163,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,836,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 449,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $26,607,000 after purchasing an additional 24,612 shares in the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 66,507 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,937,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 10,019 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 152,605 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,034,000 after buying an additional 9,518 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Bank of America boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $62.27 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $63.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $248.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.73, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.