First Financial Bank Trust Division Increases Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Financial Bank Trust Division raised its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 53,924 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 466 shares during the period. First Financial Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,192,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the 3rd 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 during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $59.07. 10,369,296 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,212,635. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $235.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.