New Century Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

New Century Financial Group LLC reduced its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,826 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,324 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CSCO shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $62.23 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $247.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.71, a PEG ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $59.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.86. 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 fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.32.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently 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.