Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $64.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price boosted by Citigroup from $62.00 to $64.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on CSCO. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $59.38. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after buying an additional 51,924 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,830,000 after acquiring an additional 92,179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IRON Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $856,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.