Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Bank of America Analyst Says

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective boosted by equities researchers at Bank of America from $60.00 to $72.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 25.30% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. HSBC raised shares of 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 report on Friday, August 16th. New Street Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G 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. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was 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 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 ninety days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at approximately $840,538,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.