Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Rating Increased to Outperform at BNP Paribas

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by BNP Paribas from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $72.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock. BNP Paribas’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.91% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CSCO. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

CSCO opened at $59.55 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.31. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % 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 586 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pflug Koory LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,955,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,591 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $627,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,744 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,879,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 7,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the third quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,497 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. 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.