Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Trading 1.2% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) shares traded up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $60.40 and last traded at $60.38. 2,890,853 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 19,855,637 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.67.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.79 and a 200-day moving average of $57.75. The company has a market capitalization of $240.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. 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.