The Goldman Sachs Group Boosts Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $63.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price lifted by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $56.00 to $63.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price points to a potential downside of 2.88% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CSCO. UBS Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $64.87 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $59.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

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

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on 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 sale, 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 the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during 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 bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.