Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Sells 13,886 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lessened its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 16.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 71,777 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 13,886 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at $44,478,105.49. The trade was a 4.15% 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, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,185 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total transaction of $265,789.35. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,921.53. This represents a 9.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,573 shares of company stock valued at $4,392,619 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $65.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.99 billion, a PE ratio of 28.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $59.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.46.

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 firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated 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 repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.