Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Sells 9,120 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,892 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,120 shares during the quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,322,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth approximately $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.62 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $61.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $241.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.47, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

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.