Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. Has $1.89 Million Stock Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 31,868 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,130 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $1,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 4.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $54.54 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $216.98 billion, a PE ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.92. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.01%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.