Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Sells 8,610 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina cut its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,108,786 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 8,610 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for 0.5% of Treasurer of the State of North Carolina's portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina owned approximately 0.05% of Cisco Systems worth $124,840,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $132,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th 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 during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,003,000 after acquiring an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $502,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,718,195 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,107,930,000 after acquiring an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $66.00.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company's stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.09 on Monday, reaching $57.42. The company had a trading volume of 5,450,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,058,274. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.43 billion, a PE ratio of 25.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $61.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.05.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is an increase from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.