Verity & Verity LLC Sells 4,668 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

Verity & Verity LLC lessened its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 282,895 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,668 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for 1.7% of Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $19,627,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 393,989,568 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $27,334,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,039,714 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 99,252,395 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,864,058,000 after buying an additional 1,157,704 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,117,146 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,907,599,000 after buying an additional 4,437,450 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 37.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 46,973,293 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,898,722,000 after acquiring an additional 12,775,066 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 46.2% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,836,858 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,833,261,000 after acquiring an additional 12,904,969 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Melius Research raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Citic Securities lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. CICC Research raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $77.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 9,801 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.38, for a total transaction of $748,600.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 33,026 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,522,525.88. This represents a 22.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 164,584 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.85, for a total transaction of $12,812,864.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 196,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,316,053.30. The trade was a 45.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 1,024,627 shares of company stock valued at $79,621,482 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $76.50 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $302.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.11 and a 52 week high of $80.06. The company has a fifty day moving average of $71.02 and a 200 day moving average of $68.31.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The network equipment provider reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 18.45% and a return on equity of 27.06%. The business had revenue of $14.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Cisco Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.080-4.140 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.010-1.030 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.65%.

Cisco Systems Company 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.