Evercore ISI Increases Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $60.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target hoisted by research analysts at Evercore ISI from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.45% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.11.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $51.97 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $54.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at $33,794,278.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,957.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at $33,794,278.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,096.2% in the fourth quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 2,906,676 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $146,845,000 after acquiring an additional 2,663,676 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.0% during the first quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 24,346 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,215,000 after buying an additional 943 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares during the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.4% during the first quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 45,983 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,300,000 after buying an additional 15,198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $117,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.