ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd Trims Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 51,865 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 729 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,070,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.59 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.21, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day moving average is $60.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 69.87%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.