Swedbank AB Sells 1,981,877 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Swedbank AB lessened its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 21.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,047,717 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 1,981,877 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB owned approximately 0.18% of Cisco Systems worth $417,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $59.55. 17,898,502 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,236,291. The company has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.32. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.31.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. Cisco Systems's revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems 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.