Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $68.00.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted 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.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $63.34 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 firm has a market capitalization of $250.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.04.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly 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 $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 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, July 23rd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

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

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Silicon Valley Capital Partners boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 194.7% in the first quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 5,443 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 3,596 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth about $122,254,000. Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 99,534 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,142,000 after purchasing an additional 979 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.0% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,941 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $76,640,000 after purchasing an additional 256,415 shares during the period. Finally, SWS Partners raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. SWS Partners now owns 29,729 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,835,000 after purchasing an additional 1,778 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.