Parthenon LLC Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Parthenon LLC trimmed its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 204,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,605 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises 1.5% of Parthenon LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Parthenon LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $12,117,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 25,699 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 1,505 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 132,793 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $7,067,000 after purchasing an additional 9,842 shares in the last quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.4% in the third quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 4,866,136 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $258,976,000 after buying an additional 575,955 shares during the period. Finally, Stanley Laman Group Ltd. lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the third quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 9,695 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 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 transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 $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 have sold a total of 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $64.84 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $60.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $258.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 69.87%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.