Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Rating Reiterated by Needham & Company LLC

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius Research restated a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Barclays raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Melius lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.19.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $49.21 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $199.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $45.56 and a 12-month high of $58.19.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,528,939,000. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 34.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 45,217,668 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,284,397,000 after purchasing an additional 11,552,694 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,943,593,000 after purchasing an additional 9,160,347 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 83.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,544,909 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $752,554,000 after purchasing an additional 6,621,125 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by 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.