Piper Sandler Boosts Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $57.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price raised by Piper Sandler from $52.00 to $57.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on CSCO. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $54.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.80. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $59.38. The stock has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. This represents a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,659,200. This trade represents a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.