Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Sells 178,153 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 24.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 541,026 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 178,153 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $32,029,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CSCO. Quarry LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO traded up $0.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $59.55. The company's stock had a trading volume of 17,898,502 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,236,291. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a PEG ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.32.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

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.