Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $59.41 and last traded at $59.20, with a volume of 1513188 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $58.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Ten investment 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. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.8 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.24. The company has a market cap of $235.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.21, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at $12,596,059. This represents a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 342,858 shares of company stock valued at $19,661,157 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the second 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 raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.