Mcdonald Partners LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Mcdonald Partners LLC cut its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,491 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,788 shares during the period. Mcdonald Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schubert & Co acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $227,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 189,339 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,209,000 after acquiring an additional 70,056 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 153,517 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,088,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,142 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,666,000 after acquiring an additional 1,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 35,373 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after purchasing an additional 5,525 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.6 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $64.87 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $60.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.76. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.