Van ECK Associates Corp Lowers Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Van ECK Associates Corp decreased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 18.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 960,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 218,763 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $56,858,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 52.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,727,555 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $102,099,000 after purchasing an additional 594,146 shares during the period. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich now owns 35,175 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,082,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the period. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. now owns 21,080 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,248,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,195,000. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $253,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CSCO. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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. Insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.84 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $254.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share 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 represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

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

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.