First County Bank CT Cuts Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First County Bank CT reduced its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 25.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 5,538 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $963,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 59.3% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $798,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after acquiring an additional 51,924 shares during the period. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $1,698,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $0.10 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $58.87. The stock had a trading volume of 8,326,520 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,384,969. The company has a market capitalization of $234.46 billion, a PE ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.95.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at $12,596,059. This trade represents a 20.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.