Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded to “Buy” at Bank of America

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $60.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $55.00. Bank of America‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 25.21% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Melius downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.03.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $47.92 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $49.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.32. The firm has a market cap of $194.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $45.56 and a 52 week high of $58.19. 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following 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. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MCF Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 25,990 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,999 shares in the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 221,788 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $11,069,000 after acquiring an additional 647 shares in the last quarter. Weaver Consulting Group boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 40.0% during the 1st quarter. Weaver Consulting Group now owns 8,740 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,496 shares in the last quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.2% in the first quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,520 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $226,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 12,537 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $626,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. 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.