Brokerages Set Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Target Price at $55.89

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $56.11.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. New Street Research raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. HSBC raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 165,580 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,307.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 23,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 104.2% during the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 23,064 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 11,767 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 70.1% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 24,137 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 9,943 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $871,000. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 190,809 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $9,640,000 after buying an additional 30,080 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $51.97 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $48.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.05. The company has a market capitalization of $209.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $54.58.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

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.