Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Sold by Argus Investors Counsel Inc.

Argus Investors Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 14.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,585 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 2,500 shares during the period. Argus Investors Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. West Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $62.57 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.82. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $62.71.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS 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 company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

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.