Morgan Stanley Raises Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $62.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $58.00 to $62.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average is $54.18 and its 200-day moving average is $49.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 ninety days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth about $840,538,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in 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 holdings in 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 worth $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. 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.