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

Highland Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 176,071 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,515 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $10,423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.55 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $62.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.30 and its 200-day moving average is $54.32. The stock has a market cap of $237.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

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.