Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives $61.28 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $61.50.

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.23 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.86. The stock has a market cap of $247.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.71, a P/E/G ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $62.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

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.