Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives $56.03 Average PT from Brokerages

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $56.03.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Finally, Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 636 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 704 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $48.32 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $195.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $45.56 and a 52 week high of $58.19. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.63%.

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.