Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $73.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price lifted by Citigroup from $71.00 to $73.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. BNP Paribas raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen 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 target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $64.14 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $255.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

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 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. This is an increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total value of $449,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 65,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,946,331.05. This trade represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 74,848 shares of company stock worth $4,767,206 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 150.3% during the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 19,872 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,058,000 after acquiring an additional 11,934 shares in the last quarter. Seaside Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $215,000. Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 125,345 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,671,000 after purchasing an additional 3,992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 8,451 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $450,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.