Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Raised to “Outperform” at BNP Paribas

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by equities researchers at BNP Paribas from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $72.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock. BNP Paribas’ price target indicates a potential upside of 20.91% from the stock’s current price.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America upped 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $59.55 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $237.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.30 and a 200 day moving average of $54.32.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 14.3% during the second quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,576 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.3% in the second quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 92,565 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,392,000 after buying an additional 321 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,358,000. Finally, Ariadne Wealth Management LP acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $264,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.