Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Sells 16,506 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 8.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 173,300 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 16,506 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $8,755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 13,624 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035 shares during the last quarter. Financial Symmetry Inc acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $403,000. HTLF Bank acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $6,855,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 35.0% during the 4th quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 38,809 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 10,069 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 48.6% during the 4th quarter. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp now owns 8,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 2,925 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.03.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $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 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.19 on Friday, reaching $48.30. 7,032,865 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,325,723. The company has a market capitalization of $195.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $45.56 and a one year high of $58.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $49.11 and a 200 day moving average of $50.29.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.63%.

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.