By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO – Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.
A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CSCO. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.
View Our Latest Analysis on CSCO
Cisco Systems Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Friday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $60.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.59. 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
Cisco Systems Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems
In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems
Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.
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.
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