Semus Wealth Partners LLC Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Semus Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,012 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 663 shares during the period. Semus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after buying an additional 3,975,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total value of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,921 shares of company stock valued at $4,298,667. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.59 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.89. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $257.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

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.