Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Kentucky Retirement Systems

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 280,669 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 24,463 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $14,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at about $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,357 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CSCO. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.46 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.76.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,659,200. This represents a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.