Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at UBS Group from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. UBS Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 7.91% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company has a market cap of $258.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.42.

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

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 9,334 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,782 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $262,000. Wahed Invest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 103,686 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,138,000 after purchasing an additional 5,842 shares in the last quarter. South Plains Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $425,000. Finally, Arrow Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Arrow Financial Corp now owns 54,592 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,232,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.