Paragon Capital Management Ltd Lowers Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Paragon Capital Management Ltd lessened its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 17.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,776 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,421 shares during the period. Paragon Capital Management Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after purchasing an additional 6,345,954 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,528,939,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 47,195,836 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,384,334,000 after acquiring an additional 3,314,330 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 24,941,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,260,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,723,260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 18,922,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $955,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,748 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday, April 15th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, June 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.47.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.57 during trading on Friday, hitting $47.29. 65,576,288 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,527,716. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.85. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.95 and a 1-year high of $58.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $47.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.82% and a net margin of 21.88%. The business’s revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total transaction of $386,691.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 180,705 shares in the company, valued at $8,717,209.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,619 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.34, for a total value of $118,745.46. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 176,384 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,997,250.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total value of $386,691.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,106 shares of company stock worth $1,908,923 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems 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.