Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $78.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $73.00 to $78.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on CSCO. Wolfe Research started coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4%

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $68.05 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $69.78. The company has a market cap of $269.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $65.84 and its 200 day moving average is $62.11.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS 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 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total transaction of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 131,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total value of $1,027,222.56. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EWA LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 189.4% in the second quarter. EWA LLC now owns 32,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,251,000 after acquiring an additional 21,230 shares during the period. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.9% in the second quarter. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 48.4% in the second quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 25,181 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,747,000 after buying an additional 8,212 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 8.2% in the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 5,554,285 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $385,356,000 after buying an additional 423,141 shares during the period. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 44.8% in the second quarter. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC now owns 23,014 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,597,000 after purchasing an additional 7,125 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.