Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Up 0.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) shot up 0.8% during trading on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $68.00 to $71.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Cisco Systems traded as high as $64.35 and last traded at $64.37. 6,170,143 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 19,434,926 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.84.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on CSCO. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.8 %

The stock has a market cap of $256.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.64, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.42.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.