KBC Group NV Decreases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

KBC Group NV reduced its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 22.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,587,746 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 456,955 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $122,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 96.2% in the third quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 408 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 115.7% in the third quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 468 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holos Integrated Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Key Cisco Systems News

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and others highlight an AI networking surge driving material top‑line momentum; Zacks says AI‑driven networking contributed to substantial revenue growth and helps justify further upside as infrastructure and wireless demand shift in Cisco’s favor. Cisco’s AI Networking Surge Gathers Momentum
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analysis on Seeking Alpha notes AI infrastructure orders (including hyperscaler demand) and disciplined OPEX helped Cisco raise full‑year EPS guidance after the quarter, supporting the investment case despite margin pressure from memory costs. Cisco Remains A Buy As AI Tailwinds Broaden
• Neutral Sentiment: Cisco is reportedly in talks to buy Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix for roughly $250–$350M to bolster AI‑agent security monitoring — a strategic tuck‑in that strengthens Cisco’s security stack but is not a material spend relative to its balance sheet. M&A News: Cisco in Talks to Acquire Astrix
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation pieces note a strong 1‑year share run (up ~47% over 1 year) and ask whether current levels are fair; these analyses are weighing momentum versus stretched gains. Is Cisco Systems Fairly Priced?
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded Cisco from “strong‑buy” to “hold,” removing some buy‑side conviction and likely prompting short‑term selling pressure. Zacks Downgrades Cisco
• Negative Sentiment: Bear case from Seeking Alpha flags the $28B Splunk deal for materially increasing debt, compressing free cash flow versus pre‑Splunk levels, and limiting dividend upside — a structural FCF concern investors are reacting to. AI Top-Line Boom Can’t Hide Free Cash Flow Problem

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 19,545 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $1,485,420.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 671,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,003,220. This trade represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.07, for a total value of $134,410.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 156,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,076,329.51. The trade was a 1.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 46,431 shares of company stock worth $3,574,820. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CSCO shares. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. HSBC boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Evercore upgraded Cisco Systems from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.76.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $82.36 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $325.31 billion, a PE ratio of 28.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $53.83 and a 52-week high of $88.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $15.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.11 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.22% and a return on equity of 27.88%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.95%.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.