Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stake Cut by Paragon Capital Management LLC

Paragon Capital Management LLC cut its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 103,765 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,441 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 3.3% of Paragon Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Paragon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 worth $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in 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. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after buying an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $60.62 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $241.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.47, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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%. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.