Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $64.87 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $59.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.42. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 187.9% in the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $442,749,000 after acquiring an additional 4,880,747 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.