Aurora Investment Counsel Sells 31,867 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Aurora Investment Counsel reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 83.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,095 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 31,867 shares during the quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised 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. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $66.63.

Remove Ads

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.3 %

CSCO stock opened at $59.67 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $237.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $61.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted 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 net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 2.75%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.