Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $53.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an equal weight rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $48.14 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $194.93 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.17. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $45.56 and a 1 year high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date 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 Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Wealthspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 48.1% in the third quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 71,385 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,838,000 after buying an additional 23,194 shares during the period. Roble Belko & Company Inc lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 77.1% during the 4th quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 6,405 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 2,788 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the third quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 64,136 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,448,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $28,685,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 4,470,521 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $240,335,000 after purchasing an additional 49,700 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is 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.