Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Position Lowered by Meritage Portfolio Management

Meritage Portfolio Management decreased its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 122,206 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,069 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. FMR LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,069,815,000 after buying an additional 1,790,717 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,717,537,000 after buying an additional 1,847,682 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 33,536,256 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,802,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181,327 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Cisco Systems by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,750,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $947,262,000 after purchasing an additional 3,753,165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,376,937 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $611,624,000 after purchasing an additional 405,699 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.3 %

CSCO traded down $0.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.94. The company had a trading volume of 7,148,817 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,257,328. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $45.56 and a 12 month high of $58.19. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $48.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.11. The company has a market cap of $194.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.62, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 48.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Melius downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.53.

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.