Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $57.00 to $72.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.14% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.17.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $0.55 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $63.08. 16,455,203 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,967,555. The company has a market capitalization of $251.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.08, a P/E/G ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.36. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This 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 quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake 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 valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its holdings 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 worth $262,646,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.