Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler lifted 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. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Ten 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $59.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.