Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Citigroup upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. Citigroup now has a $62.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $52.00. Cisco Systems traded as high as $54.61 and last traded at $54.42, with a volume of 4038221 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.27.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays dropped 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. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.74.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,794,278.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after buying an additional 1,853,598 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in 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 worth $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $691,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906,357 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $227.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.87%.

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.