Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $61.28.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CSCO shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth $62,000. Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 697,285 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,128,000 after purchasing an additional 58,987 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $242,000. Sienna Gestion raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 41.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sienna Gestion now owns 310,525 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,746,000 after purchasing an additional 90,610 shares during the period. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.6% during the second quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 95,579 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,541,000 after purchasing an additional 9,127 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

CSCO stock opened at $59.82 on Friday. 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 has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $60.45. The company has a market cap of $238.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.67, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average of $58.83 and a 200-day moving average of $53.39.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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

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.