Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target lifted by Morgan Stanley from $62.00 to $68.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.28.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $58.52 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $60.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $233.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.12, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.57.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.