Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Barclays from $49.00 to $56.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential downside of 5.37% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.16.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $59.18 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $59.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.30, a PEG ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.64.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP increased its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.