Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note published on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $75.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $72.00.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 4.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $64.26 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $255.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $58.69 and its 200-day moving average is $59.60.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.