New York State Common Retirement Fund Reduces Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,312,825 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 527,138 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.16% of Cisco Systems worth $318,924,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 704 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3,500.0% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 720 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.18 on Monday, hitting $48.14. The stock had a trading volume of 20,131,136 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,517,379. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $49.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.17. The company has a market cap of $194.93 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $45.56 and a one year high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 48.63%.

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.