Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $61.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price raised by Barclays from $56.00 to $61.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on CSCO. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $64.87 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $60.07 and a 200 day moving average of $55.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. The trade was a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were 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 directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $3,297,905,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.