Aurora Investment Counsel Sells 3,164 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Aurora Investment Counsel cut its holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 7.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,962 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,164 shares during the quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $2,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in Cisco Systems by 24.4% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,573,000 after purchasing an additional 51,924 shares during the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in 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 last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. increased its position in Cisco Systems by 17.0% in the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after purchasing an additional 92,179 shares during the period. Finally, IRON Financial LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $856,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $57.50 on Thursday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $229.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $54.68 and its 200-day moving average is $50.00.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,258,974.53. This represents a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 321,628 shares of company stock worth $18,449,561 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

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.