Brokerages Set Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Target Price at $61.28

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.50.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position 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 worth $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $61.03 on Friday. 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 $61.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $58.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.70. The company has a market capitalization of $243.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

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.