JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target increased by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $69.00 to $73.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.53% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.6 %

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

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 57.7% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,155,964 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,979,000 after acquiring an additional 38,000 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 36,707 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 847 shares during the period. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 188,268 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,553 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.