Ballast Advisors LLC Sells 332 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Ballast Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 6.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,722 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 332 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after buying an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at approximately $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $691,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906,357 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.74.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $1.39 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $57.55. 790,531 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,894,709. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $229.67 billion, a PE ratio of 22.11, a P/E/G ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $57.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $52.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.21.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.99%.

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.