Vicus Capital Reduces Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Vicus Capital trimmed its position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,244 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 938 shares during the quarter. Vicus Capital’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,796,505,000 after acquiring an additional 4,832,813 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 36,471,275 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,159,099,000 after purchasing an additional 2,637,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,419,041 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,741,597,000 after purchasing an additional 681,555 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.11.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3%

Cisco Systems stock opened at $65.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $66.50. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $60.86 and its 200-day moving average is $60.66. The company has a market cap of $258.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.67, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.51%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total value of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 131,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,478,105.49. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 72,931 shares of company stock valued at $4,671,930 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.