Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins Sells 31,983 Shares of Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.59 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $257.25 billion, a PE ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Barclays raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% 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.