Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $58.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on CSCO. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an equal weight rating and a $52.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Melius Research reissued a hold rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $56.19.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $50.01 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $45.56 and a 1 year high of $58.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.50 billion, a PE ratio of 15.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.16 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. United Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $645,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 32.5% during the first 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 last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 21.5% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $656,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of 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 worth $135,470,000 after acquiring an additional 182,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.