Hancock Whitney Corp Lowers Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Hancock Whitney Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 77.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 80,734 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 271,998 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $4,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 617.7% during the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $58.64 on Monday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.38. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $55.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.17. The company has a market capitalization of $233.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 342,858 shares of company stock valued at $19,661,157. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.