Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.42.

Several research firms recently issued reports on CSCO. Melius downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,835,509,000 after acquiring an additional 59,466,550 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,528,939,000. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 45,217,668 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,284,397,000 after buying an additional 11,552,694 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,943,593,000 after buying an additional 9,160,347 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 83.6% during the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,544,909 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $752,554,000 after buying an additional 6,621,125 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $49.91 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $49.75 and a 200-day moving average of $50.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $45.56 and a twelve month high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.16 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 47.42%.

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.