Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $73.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $70.00 to $73.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on CSCO. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.62 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $253.10 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.9% during the first quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 5,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Greenline Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the first quarter. Greenline Partners LLC now owns 32,570 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,010,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Pflug Koory LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 2,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. 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.