Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) EVP Oliver Tuszik Sells 15,000 Shares

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total transaction of $952,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 131,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This trade represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.05 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $249.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.07. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared 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 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tallon Kerry Patrick purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $603,000. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,392,000 after purchasing an additional 24,562 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 60.3% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 8,219 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 27,086 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,604,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Griffin Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,059 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $536,000 after buying an additional 1,260 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 equities research analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.00.

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.