First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Reduces Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 280,826 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,661 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $16,625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 31,490 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,864,000 after buying an additional 932 shares during the period. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 14,538 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the period. Insight Inv LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 39,963 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,271 shares in the last quarter. Advocate Group LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Advocate Group LLC now owns 203,159 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,027,000 after purchasing an additional 3,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 80,543 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,768,000 after buying an additional 9,254 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $62.23 on Friday. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $62.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $59.22 and a 200-day moving average of $54.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $247.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.71, a PEG ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

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.