JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has Lowered Expectations for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price trimmed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $73.00 to $70.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CSCO. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $55.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $221.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.33, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $60.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.94%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % 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 this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pflug Koory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 33,026 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 2,070 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,581 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,656 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,100 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.