Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins Sells 31,983 Shares

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $64.59. 22,039,748 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,130,648. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $60.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.76.

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 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. 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 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.