Brokerages Set Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target at $59.94

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $59.94.

A number of brokerages recently commented on CSCO. Bank of America raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.21 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $55.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.53. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $59.87. The company has a market capitalization of $235.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 339,479 shares of company stock valued at $19,490,991 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth $25,000. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. 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.