Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Aire Advisors LLC

Aire Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,579 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 584 shares during the quarter. Aire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $16,798,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 51.7% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 18,664 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $993,000 after purchasing an additional 6,357 shares during the period. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $243,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 19.9% during the third quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 19,939 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,061,000 after purchasing an additional 3,309 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Hawaii raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Hawaii now owns 41,133 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,189,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.97 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.25. 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 company has a market cap of $242.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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 research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 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 value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.