Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $61.00 at Barclays

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective lifted by analysts at Barclays from $56.00 to $61.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 2.45% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CSCO. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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 report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.22.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.53 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $249.04 billion, a PE ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $63.25. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.36.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.