Verus Capital Partners LLC Sells 1,795 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Verus Capital Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,745 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,795 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $814,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Fusion Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Fusion Capital LLC now owns 119,554 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $7,078,000 after purchasing an additional 3,746 shares during the last quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 42.2% in the 4th quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 38,611 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,286,000 after buying an additional 11,451 shares during the last quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 181,902 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,769,000 after buying an additional 5,734 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 790,217 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,781,000 after buying an additional 35,006 shares during the period. Finally, Versor Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $314,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.14 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. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $255.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $61.23 and a 200-day moving average of $56.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CSCO. Bank of America increased their target price 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 cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.63.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.