Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $58.00 to $62.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 7.90% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CSCO. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Barclays decreased their target price on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.8 %

CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $59.38. The company has a market cap of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a 50 day moving average of $54.00 and a 200 day moving average of $49.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,659,200. This represents a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 226.9% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,319,000 after buying an additional 18,339 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,071,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.0% in the 1st quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 650,818 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,482,000 after purchasing an additional 308,300 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,200,000. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.8% in the first quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 178,218 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,895,000 after purchasing an additional 8,210 shares during the period. 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.