Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 50.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 90,675 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 92,119 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after acquiring an additional 288,775 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,830,000 after purchasing an additional 92,179 shares during the period. Finally, IRON Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $856,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. New Street Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $59.38. The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.82 and a 200-day moving average of $49.64. The company has a market capitalization of $229.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

About Cisco Systems

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.