Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $72.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price boosted by Piper Sandler from $57.00 to $72.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 10.99% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on CSCO. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The firm has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. The trade was a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in Cisco Systems by 187.9% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $442,749,000 after purchasing an additional 4,880,747 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.