Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have issued a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.42.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Melius Research reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $2,528,939,000. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 34.3% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 45,217,668 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,284,397,000 after acquiring an additional 11,552,694 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,943,593,000 after purchasing an additional 9,160,347 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 83.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,544,909 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $752,554,000 after purchasing an additional 6,621,125 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $49.77 on Friday. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $45.56 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $49.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $201.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

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.