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 report issued on Thursday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CSCO. Citigroup upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.88. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.80. The firm has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the firm’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Quarry LP raised 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 valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.