New England Research & Management Inc. Sells 3,869 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

New England Research & Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 25.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,465 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,869 shares during the quarter. New England Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $679,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.55 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50-day moving average is $59.30 and its 200 day moving average is $54.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.