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

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

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on CSCO. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.61 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $57.31. 14,090,825 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,077,955. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $228.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.69. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.79%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,659,200. This represents a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. This trade represents a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 31.2% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 469,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $24,988,000 after acquiring an additional 111,549 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 92.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,271 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 3,439,329 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $183,041,000 after purchasing an additional 182,578 shares during the period. Rench Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 74,674 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,974,000 after purchasing an additional 890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $310,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.