Bridgewater Associates LP Decreases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bridgewater Associates LP decreased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 38.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,190 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 6,382 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $603,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $3,297,905,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 216,632 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $988,499,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195,469 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 13,880,257 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $821,711,000 after purchasing an additional 2,114,994 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.58.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $55.73 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.13. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly 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 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.62%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems 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 transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.