Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-one brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $60.28.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.6 %

CSCO opened at $59.61 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.29. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $60.23. The stock has a market cap of $237.41 billion, a PE ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,299,563.62. The trade was a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legacy Wealth Management LLC MS bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.7% during the third quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 22,320 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,970 shares during the period. Logan Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc. now owns 295,303 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $15,716,000 after purchasing an additional 27,175 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 3,038,015 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $161,683,000 after purchasing an additional 109,772 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth $502,000. 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.