Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $57.00 at Piper Sandler

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target hoisted by Piper Sandler from $52.00 to $57.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CSCO. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $57.39. The company had a trading volume of 16,882,091 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,089,469. The company has a market capitalization of $229.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $59.38. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. The trade was a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 226.9% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 18,339 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the first quarter valued at $46,071,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 90.0% during the first quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 650,818 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,482,000 after acquiring an additional 308,300 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,200,000. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd lifted 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 valued at $8,895,000 after buying an additional 8,210 shares during 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.