Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Sells 178,153 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 24.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 541,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 178,153 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $32,029,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSCO. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, 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 transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.57 on Wednesday, reaching $60.00. 2,295,378 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,320,457. The firm has a market capitalization of $238.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day moving average is $59.30 and its 200-day moving average is $54.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $62.31.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

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.