State of Michigan Retirement System Cuts Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

State of Michigan Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,312,462 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 110,904 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $77,698,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after acquiring an additional 92,179 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.48 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.06. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $252.54 billion, a PE ratio of 27.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. 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 data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 74,848 shares of company stock valued at $4,767,206. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

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.