Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Director Michael Capellas Sells 16,150 Shares

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Director Michael Capellas sold 16,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.28, for a total transaction of $1,248,072.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 157,218 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,807.04. The trade was a 9.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.9%

NASDAQ CSCO traded up $1.47 on Friday, hitting $78.42. 84,387,443 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 21,151,119. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $74.38 and a 200 day moving average of $70.07. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $52.11 and a twelve month high of $80.82. The company has a market capitalization of $309.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The network equipment provider reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $14.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.77 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.29% and a net margin of 18.38%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. Cisco Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.080-4.140 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.010-1.030 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 61.65%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AIA Group Ltd increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 254,654 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,423,000 after purchasing an additional 114,474 shares during the period. Financial Symmetry Inc boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the third quarter. Financial Symmetry Inc now owns 11,081 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $758,000 after buying an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. Farmers National Bank boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the third quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 90,426 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,187,000 after buying an additional 15,581 shares in the last quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 9.9% during the third quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $311,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the period. Finally, Saranac Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the third quarter worth about $231,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade/price-target lift: Morgan Stanley raised its price target on CSCO to $91, supporting upside expectations and likely helping buying interest. Morgan Stanley Boosts Cisco Systems Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend and corporate cash returns remain supportive: Cisco’s recent dividend (annualized $1.64, yield ~2.1%) and strong cash metrics underpin investor confidence in the name. Positive Sentiment: dividend
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation/watch-the-run: Coverage pieces are reassessing Cisco after a ~37% one‑year share-price climb — investors should balance growth story vs. stretched multiples. Reassessing Valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Security risk: Researchers disclosed that a China‑linked hacking group is exploiting a vulnerability in popular Cisco products to target enterprise customers — this raises potential remediation costs, reputation risk, and near‑term customer concern. TechCrunch: Chinese hacking campaign
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sales: Two directors disclosed multi‑hundred‑thousand to >$1M stock sales (Michael D. Capellas and Kristina M. Johnson), which reduces insider ownership and can be interpreted negatively by some investors. SEC filings: Capellas Form 4 and Johnson Form 4

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. HSBC upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.55.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.