Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $86.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $90.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. CICC Research raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $96.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.14.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $117.01 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $90.33. The stock has a market cap of $461.19 billion, a PE ratio of 37.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.02. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $65.75 and a one year high of $130.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The network equipment provider reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 20.14% and a return on equity of 28.44%. The firm had revenue of $15.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.96 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Cisco Systems has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.160-1.180 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 4.270-4.290 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 21,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.03, for a total transaction of $2,568,642.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 637,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,469,312.55. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 7,127 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.91, for a total transaction of $854,598.57. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 140,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,890,162.87. This represents a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 47,650 shares of company stock valued at $5,668,823 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 398,943,293 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $30,730,602,000 after acquiring an additional 4,049,893 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 195,521,161 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,060,995,000 after purchasing an additional 1,057,962 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 75,326,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,802,382,000 after purchasing an additional 206,352 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 59,836,782 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,609,227,000 after purchasing an additional 6,224,062 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $4,473,272,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.