Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded by Melius Research to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on CSCO. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.95.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.2 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $58.77 on Monday. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week 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 firm has a market capitalization of $234.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day moving average is $58.38 and its 200-day moving average is $52.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’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 value of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $51,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $56,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.