Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CSCO. Hsbc Global Res raised Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.8 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $59.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $54.00 and a 200 day moving average of $49.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 226.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,319,000 after purchasing an additional 18,339 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth $46,071,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.0% during the 1st quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 650,818 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,482,000 after acquiring an additional 308,300 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,200,000. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd increased its position in Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the first quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 178,218 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,895,000 after purchasing an additional 8,210 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.