Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $66.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target increased by Barclays from $61.00 to $66.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.0%

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.62 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $253.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 1,084,181 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $66,905,000 after buying an additional 204,527 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 2,269,541 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $140,053,000 after buying an additional 1,240,827 shares during the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 10,456 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $645,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 484,779 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,916,000 after buying an additional 35,337 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HFM Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $664,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.