Russell Investments Group Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its position in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,579,242 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 150,584 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.09% of Cisco Systems worth $180,812,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 704 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3,500.0% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 720 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Melius Research reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Melius downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.53.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $47.86. 14,658,910 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,851,638. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.06. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.56 and a 1-year high of $58.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $193.79 billion, a PE ratio of 14.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.63%.

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.