Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $57.00 to $60.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on CSCO. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. HSBC upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Barclays upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.9 %

Cisco Systems stock traded down $0.53 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $57.39. 16,882,091 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,089,469. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $54.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.03 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 current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the company’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 value of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,598 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.