Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. New Street Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.55 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $57.37. 11,581,616 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,068,664. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $59.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.00 and its 200 day moving average is $49.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.79%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,659,200. This trade represents a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth about $798,000. IHT Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 23.9% in the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 79,311 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,214,000 after purchasing an additional 15,285 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 31.5% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,703,949 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $143,877,000 after acquiring an additional 647,426 shares during the last quarter. Harber Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $11,229,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,544,333 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $241,909,000 after purchasing an additional 304,217 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is 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.