Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $62.00 at UBS Group

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective increased by UBS Group from $55.00 to $62.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $59.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.76 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 226.9% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,319,000 after acquiring an additional 18,339 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,071,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.0% during the 1st quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 650,818 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,482,000 after acquiring an additional 308,300 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,200,000. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 178,218 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,895,000 after purchasing an additional 8,210 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.