Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $64.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price increased by Citigroup from $62.00 to $64.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. New Street Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $59.38. The company has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $54.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This trade represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth approximately $840,538,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.