Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $59.41 and last traded at $59.20, with a volume of 1513188 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $58.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.5 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $236.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 339,479 shares of company stock worth $19,490,991. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. First City Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. First City Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,232 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,010,000 after purchasing an additional 515 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Cisco Systems by 217.4% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,107,552 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $55,278,000 after acquiring an additional 758,624 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 268,251 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,388,000 after purchasing an additional 127,174 shares during the period. Clean Yield Group increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 86,246 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,305,000 after buying an additional 17,247 shares during the period. Finally, Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the first quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 18,106 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $904,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

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.