Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Up 1.6% on Analyst Upgrade

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price was up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $71.00 to $73.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Cisco Systems traded as high as $65.20 and last traded at $65.10. Approximately 4,185,715 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 19,164,740 shares. The stock had previously closed at $64.08.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.63.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,402,239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $252.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.71, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.