Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Reduces Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lessened its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 38.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,881 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 8,065 shares during the quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $763,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th 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 acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,796,505,000 after acquiring an additional 4,832,813 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,419,041 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,741,597,000 after acquiring an additional 681,555 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,161,261 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,015,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,943,563 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 weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.26 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.60. The stock has a market cap of $255.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems 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.