Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Trading Down 0.5% – Should You Sell?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) shares were down 0.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $60.34 and last traded at $60.84. Approximately 3,671,603 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 17,820,358 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.12.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.97.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% 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.