Bessemer Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Bessemer Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 228,003 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 19,230 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $13,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $132,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $65.74.

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Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % 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 link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO remained flat at $57.41 during trading hours on Tuesday. 4,396,516 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,035,529. 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 company's 50 day moving average price is $61.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.07, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program 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 programs are generally a sign that the company's board 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.