Rosenblatt Securities Upgrades Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) to Buy

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by stock analysts at Rosenblatt Securities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a $80.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $66.00. Rosenblatt Securities’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 27.94% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.94.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.53 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $63.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.31. The company has a market cap of $249.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $560,722,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in 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 buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. 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.