Brokerages Set Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Target Price at $60.28

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.28.

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $59.85 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $57.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $52.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $238.37 billion, a PE ratio of 25.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $60.23.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total transaction of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after acquiring an additional 288,775 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $798,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $12,573,000 after purchasing an additional 51,924 shares during the period. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,698,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% during 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.