Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $68.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $62.00 to $68.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.28.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.63 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $57.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.65. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $229.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.73, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the third quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the period. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the third quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 5,249 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.6% during the third quarter. Wealth Dimensions Group Ltd. now owns 11,372 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $605,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the third quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 5,020 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.