Meyer Handelman Co. Decreases Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Meyer Handelman Co. reduced its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 619,213 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 13,440 shares during the period. Cisco Systems comprises approximately 1.3% of Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $38,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,003,000 after buying an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after buying an additional 5,123 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 193,478 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,454,000 after buying an additional 59,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aveo Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,296 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $314,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CSCO shares. New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $62.81 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week 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. The company has a market capitalization of $248.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.30 and a 200 day moving average of $60.10.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 66.94%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total value of $952,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 131,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. The trade was a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,616 shares of company stock valued at $2,640,095 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.