Cowa LLC Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cowa LLC cut its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 349 shares during the quarter. Cowa LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $502,000. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,830,000 after acquiring an additional 92,179 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 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 $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 $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Melius upgraded 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $63.98 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $60.65 and its 200-day moving average is $56.15. The stock has a market cap of $254.53 billion, a PE ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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 given a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.