Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Insider Sells $637,205.17 in Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total transaction of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 257,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,450,653.14. The trade was a 3.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.50 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $63.42. The company had a trading volume of 14,991,525 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,375,608. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $252.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $58.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.78.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter valued at about $520,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,288,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 87.2% in the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 56,779 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,504,000 after purchasing an additional 26,455 shares during the period. Integrity Alliance LLC. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 88.9% in the first quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. now owns 49,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,085,000 after purchasing an additional 23,532 shares during the period. Finally, Ransom Advisory Ltd purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the first quarter valued at $2,730,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.00.

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.