Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. Sells 9,570 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 117,143 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 9,570 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems makes up about 1.3% of Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $6,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 12,161 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $720,000 after acquiring an additional 714 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 14,262 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $844,000 after acquiring an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 5,620 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. PYA Waltman Capital LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. PYA Waltman Capital LLC now owns 18,863 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,117,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Physicians Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. now owns 32,450 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,921,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.98 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $60.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.15.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Sell-side analysts forecast 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 paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.