Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Downgraded by New Street Research to “Neutral”

New Street Research downgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Raymond James lowered Cisco Systems from a market perform rating to an underperform rating in a research report on Monday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, August 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $58.38.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 9.8 %

CSCO stock opened at $48.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.98. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $45.16 and a fifty-two week high of $58.19. The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.56 and a 200-day moving average of $52.23.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 15th. The network equipment provider reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.20. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 34.92% and a net margin of 23.40%. The firm had revenue of $14.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.63 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 4th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,022 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.22, for a total value of $169,896.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 169,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,523,443.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. United Bank acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 32.5% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,243,073 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $236,593,000 after acquiring an additional 1,040,607 shares during the period. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 10,540 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $588,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 21.5% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $656,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 8.1% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,429,518 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $135,470,000 after purchasing an additional 182,857 shares in the last quarter. 72.21% of the stock is 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.