Dodge & Cox Sells 82,877 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Dodge & Cox reduced its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,738,670 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 82,877 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox owned 0.60% of Cisco Systems worth $1,405,329,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pflug Koory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 2,070 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $335,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maple Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,984 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $65.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $55.73. 15,874,222 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,149,900. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $60.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.08. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (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, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign 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.