Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Lifted to “Buy” at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $60.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $55.00.

CSCO has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an overweight rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $56.03.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $48.11 on Monday. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $45.56 and a twelve month high of $58.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.81 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. United Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter valued at about $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 32.5% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,243,073 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $236,593,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040,607 shares during the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 10,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $588,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.5% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $656,000 after buying an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 8.1% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,429,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $135,470,000 after buying an additional 182,857 shares in the last quarter. 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.