Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 36.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 78,805 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 45,619 shares during the quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,193,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 19,713 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares in the last quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the third quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 49,574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after buying an additional 3,233 shares during the period. Nwam LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.6% during the third quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 18,570 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $988,000 after buying an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,952 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,117,000 after buying an additional 2,060 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Biltmore Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.1% during the third quarter. Biltmore Family Office LLC now owns 33,626 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,790,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 342,858 shares of company stock valued at $19,661,157. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $58.55 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $233.19 billion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $55.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.15.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.