JPMorgan Chase & Co. Begins Coverage on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $53.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Melius lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an overweight rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO opened at $48.35 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $48.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $45.56 and a twelve month high of $58.19. The company has a market capitalization of $195.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.70, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 48.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 71,385 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,838,000 after purchasing an additional 23,194 shares during the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 77.1% during the 4th quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 6,405 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 2,788 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 64,136 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,448,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,685,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 4,470,521 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $240,335,000 after purchasing an additional 49,700 shares during the last quarter. 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.