Vantage Investment Partners LLC Sells 29,927 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Vantage Investment Partners LLC lowered its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 11.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 240,646 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 29,927 shares during the quarter. Cisco Systems comprises 1.2% of Vantage Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Vantage Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $14,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $59.09 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $62.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.14. The company has a market capitalization of $235.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued 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. The business 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 last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.