Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $61.33 and last traded at $61.16, with a volume of 2377697 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $60.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CSCO shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $245.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $58.99 and its 200 day moving average is $53.81.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $3,345,228.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares in the company, valued at $12,596,059. This trade represents a 20.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This trade represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth $502,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.