Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Downgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Bank of America raised Cisco Systems from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a neutral rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $56.47.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $46.42 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $187.02 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $46.20 and a 1 year high of $58.19. The business’s 50-day moving average is $48.40 and its 200 day moving average is $49.30.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.82% and a net margin of 21.88%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,457 shares of company stock worth $1,358,772. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after acquiring an additional 6,345,954 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 68,463,463 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,417,011,000 after acquiring an additional 2,386,508 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,069,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,790,717 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,717,537,000 after buying an additional 1,847,682 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $2,528,939,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.