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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $62.72.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $62.81 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.71 and a 200-day moving average of $55.10. The company has a market cap of $250.16 billion, a PE ratio of 26.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $63.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $502,000. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.