Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to “Overweight” Rating

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $66.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $55.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CSCO. Hsbc Global Res raised Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target 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. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.92 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $231.14 billion, a PE ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $53.82 and a 200 day moving average of $49.64. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $59.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.01 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.99%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 6.68 % 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 worth $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 226.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,319,000 after acquiring an additional 18,339 shares in the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.8% in the first quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,886 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at $4,390,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 3,528,916 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $176,128,000 after buying an additional 171,411 shares during the period. Finally, Rogco LP boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Rogco LP now owns 27,492 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,372,000 after buying an additional 355 shares during the period. 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.