ING Groep NV Lowers Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

ING Groep NV reduced its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 19.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,417,902 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 332,150 shares during the period. ING Groep NV's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $83,940,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $56,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the 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 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 through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on CSCO. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised 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. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.71 on Friday, hitting $63.96. 10,399,141 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,473,678. 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 firm's 50-day moving average price is $60.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.01. The firm has a market cap of $254.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

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

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

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.