Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded at Rosenblatt Securities

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by research analysts at Rosenblatt Securities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $80.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $66.00. Rosenblatt Securities’ price target points to a potential upside of 23.32% from the company’s previous close.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.87 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $258.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,239 shares of company stock valued at $2,166,612 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 187.9% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,478,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $442,749,000 after buying an additional 4,880,747 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.