Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Cuts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,400 shares during the period. Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $740,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 216,632 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the company’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 transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CSCO. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $253.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.86, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day moving average is $61.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.66. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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.