Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-one brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $59.94.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $59.43 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $55.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $236.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 344,360 shares of company stock worth $19,782,533 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 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.