Richard Scott Herren Sells 86,351 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. The trade was a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $59.38. The stock has a market cap of $227.51 billion, a PE ratio of 24.47, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.83.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.