Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Reaches New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $62.49 and last traded at $62.36, with a volume of 7932315 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $61.34.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on CSCO. Bank of America boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 2.1 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $59.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.77. The firm has a market cap of $249.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.9% during the third quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $88,261,000 after acquiring an additional 162,544 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at approximately $502,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.