Bridgeway Capital Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bridgeway Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 310,816 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 67,118 shares during the quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $18,400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $413,491,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 187.9% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $442,749,000 after purchasing an additional 4,880,747 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius raised shares of 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 report on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $63.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. 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, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.05.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.32 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $235.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results 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%. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.