Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Down 0.8% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) fell 0.8% on Monday . The company traded as low as $63.09 and last traded at $63.42. 4,528,971 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 19,674,619 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.94.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 2.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business’s 50 day moving average is $61.63 and its 200-day moving average is $57.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $246.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,348 shares of company stock valued at $4,318,181 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after acquiring an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $502,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.