Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $72.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective increased by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $72.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 14.14% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on CSCO. UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.17.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.55 on Thursday, hitting $63.08. The company had a trading volume of 16,455,203 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,967,555. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $59.89 and a 200-day moving average of $55.36. 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 has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $251.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.08, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced 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 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,155,964 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $60,979,000 after purchasing an additional 38,000 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after buying an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 36,707 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after buying an additional 847 shares during the period. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd grew its position in Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 188,268 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,020,000 after buying an additional 1,553 shares in the last quarter. 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.