Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. Trims Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. decreased its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 162,426 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,700 shares during the period. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.92 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.29 billion, a PE ratio of 27.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

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.