Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) shares reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $59.41 and last traded at $59.20, with a volume of 1513188 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $58.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.5 %

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.45, a PEG ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 339,479 shares of company stock valued at $19,490,991. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the 2nd 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 raised its position in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in 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 worth $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.