Richard Scott Herren Sells 19,929 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.69 on Friday, reaching $63.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 18,681,462 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,497,584. The stock's 50-day moving average is $60.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.01. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $254.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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 purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is an increase from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $66.53.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% 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.