Saratoga Research & Investment Management Sells 18,096 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Saratoga Research & Investment Management decreased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 504,119 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 18,096 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems accounts for about 1.2% of Saratoga Research & Investment Management's holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Saratoga Research & Investment Management's holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $26,829,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Thursday, hitting $58.85. 17,645,805 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,093,742. The company has a market cap of $234.39 billion, a PE ratio of 25.15, a PEG ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.85. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $56.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.19. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 349,894 shares of company stock valued at $20,135,273. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.