Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $68.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective raised by Citigroup from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of 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 Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $60.23 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $60.95. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $242,000. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter. WCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40,995 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,948,000 after acquiring an additional 5,543 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $475,000. Cowa LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 702,429 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,372,000 after acquiring an additional 73,977 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.