Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Up 1.2% – Time to Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) traded up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $60.40 and last traded at $60.38. 2,890,853 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 19,855,637 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $239.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. This represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $413,491,000. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.