Vinva Investment Management Ltd Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 33.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 64,691 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 32,635 shares during the quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,829,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pflug Koory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,955,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $449,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Maple Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,984 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $709,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,791 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, 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 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $61.12 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $243.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.69, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.89 and a 200-day moving average of $57.97.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders 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 represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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

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.