Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Raised to Outperform at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $72.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $60.47 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $240.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.34 and its 200-day moving average is $54.35.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of Cisco Systems 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after buying an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. 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.