Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sets New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $57.65 and last traded at $57.61, with a volume of 674760 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $56.16.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.74.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $53.00 and a 200-day moving average of $49.27. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $231.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.87, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Wrapmanager Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.8% in the third quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 30,868 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,643,000 after acquiring an additional 6,526 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 353,092 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,792,000 after purchasing an additional 7,595 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 52.4% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,615 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 899 shares during the last quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.9% during the third quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management now owns 18,992 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,011,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 149,850 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,975,000 after buying an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.