Freedom Investment Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,959 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,611 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,967,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. Finally, 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 valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $59.59 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $237.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.32. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.64.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 339,479 shares of company stock valued at $19,490,991 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% 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.