Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.74.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays lowered their target price on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $55.50 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.09. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $57.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at $33,794,278.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 617.7% in the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.