Highland Capital Management LLC Decreases Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Highland Capital Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 176,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,515 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $10,423,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pflug Koory LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $627,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,879,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $59.55 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $62.31. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % 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.

About Cisco Systems

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.