Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is Exeter Financial LLC’s 10th Largest Position

Exeter Financial LLC lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for approximately 2.3% of Exeter Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Exeter Financial LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $5,264,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth about $840,538,000. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 47.1% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 18,922,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $955,961,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,748 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Natixis raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 438.4% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $245,806,000 after purchasing an additional 4,010,228 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 47,195,836 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,384,334,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,330 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays dropped their target price on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $52.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $211.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.68, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $49.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $54.58.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.87%.

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.