Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given New $64.00 Price Target at Citigroup

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from $62.00 to $64.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 1.1 %

CSCO stock traded down $0.61 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $57.31. 14,090,825 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,077,955. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average of $54.00 and a 200-day moving average of $49.69. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total transaction of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,847,000 after purchasing an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 24.4% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 264,647 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,573,000 after acquiring an additional 51,924 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the last quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.0% in the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 635,667 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $33,830,000 after acquiring an additional 92,179 shares during the period. Finally, IRON Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter worth $856,000. Hedge funds and other 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.