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

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Citigroup from $64.00 to $68.00 in a research report issued on Friday. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 13.68% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on CSCO. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $59.82 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $238.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $60.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.39.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS 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 company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 1,391,718 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $82,390,000 after purchasing an additional 99,959 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 24,425 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,446,000 after buying an additional 2,685 shares during the last quarter. Great Waters Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $228,000. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. now owns 8,471 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $501,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chesley Taft & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 17,567 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares in 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.