Citigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target increased by Citigroup from $62.00 to $64.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.76.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.67%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.