Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on CSCO. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.74.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $58.08 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $58.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $53.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.78 billion, a PE ratio of 22.87, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.75%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth $840,538,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. Natixis increased its position in Cisco Systems by 438.4% in the first quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $245,806,000 after purchasing an additional 4,010,228 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906,357 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.