Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given New $63.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target raised by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from $56.00 to $63.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price indicates a potential downside of 1.35% from the company’s current price.

CSCO has been the subject of several other reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.37.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $1.33 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $63.86. 24,828,313 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,289,447. The company has a market capitalization of $254.34 billion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.36. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by 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.