Impax Asset Management Group plc Decreases Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Impax Asset Management Group plc cut its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 183,179 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 26,159 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,749,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after buying an additional 1,530,468 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $691,678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,357 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $59.42.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $57.46. 28,173,705 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,144,939. The business's fifty day moving average price is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.76. The company has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.