New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 86,143 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,631,112 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 86,143 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $333,362,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report 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 on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $64.59 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $60.31 and its 200-day moving average is $55.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $257.25 billion, a PE ratio of 27.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.