Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $58.00 to $62.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays reduced their price target on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.9 %

CSCO stock traded down $0.53 during trading on Thursday, hitting $57.39. 16,882,091 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,089,469. The stock has a market cap of $229.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $54.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.69. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after acquiring an additional 92,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IRON Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $856,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.