Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Trading Up 1.1% – Here’s What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s share price traded up 1.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $63.84 and last traded at $63.79. 3,262,735 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 20,267,536 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.11.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $59.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $253.19 billion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS 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. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 257,162 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,431 shares of company stock valued at $1,421,356. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $132,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 112,101 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 5,123 shares in the last quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,539,557 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $91,142,000 after purchasing an additional 11,506 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 193,478 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,454,000 after buying an additional 59,680 shares during the period. 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.