Stahlkopf Deborah L 4

What Happened
Deborah L. Stahlkopf, EVP and Chief Legal Officer of Cisco Systems (CSCO), sold 7,981 shares in an open-market transaction on March 17, 2026. The weighted-average sale price was $79.50 per share (range $79.02–$80.01), producing aggregate proceeds of approximately $634,513. The sale was effected pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by Stahlkopf on December 16, 2025. This was a sale (sales are often routine for liquidity or tax planning).

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-03-17 (filed with SEC on 2026-03-19; appears timely within the 2-business-day window)
• Shares sold: 7,981; weighted-average price $79.50; price range $79.02–$80.01
• Proceeds: ~$634,513
• 10b5-1 plan: Adopted 2025-12-16 (prearranged plan used to effect the sale)
• Dividend equivalents included: 2,170.952 DEs on vested deferred RSUs, 714.019 DEs on unvested deferred RSUs, and 3,295.315 DEs on unvested RSUs (each DE = economic equivalent of one share)
• Reporting note: Filing indicates a weighted average and range; the reporting person will provide, upon request, the number of shares sold at each specific price within that range
• Shares owned after transaction: not disclosed in this filing

Context
A Rule 10b5-1 plan lets insiders sell shares on a preset schedule and is commonly used to avoid trading on inside information. The sale included dividend-equivalent amounts tied to various RSU types, meaning some of the sold shares represented accrued dividend equivalents rather than newly exercised options or gifts. This transaction is a sale, not a purchase or option exercise, and does not by itself indicate a change in insider sentiment.