Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $52.29 and traded as high as $59.39. Cisco Systems shares last traded at $59.19, with a volume of 12,931,953 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.28.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.0 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.48. The company has a market capitalization of $235.78 billion, a PE ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,261,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is 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.