Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. Sells 7,130 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 18.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,868 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,130 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,887,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $3,297,905,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,107,930,000 after purchasing an additional 216,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $988,499,000 after buying an additional 1,195,469 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $54.54 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $61.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.92. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

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

Cisco Systems Company 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.