Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

CSCO has been the topic of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $59.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $54.18 and its 200 day moving average is $49.76. The stock has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position 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 worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.