Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $61.33 and last traded at $61.16, with a volume of 2377697 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $60.23.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CSCO. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Melius raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $243.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.24, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.70.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at about $242,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 27.5% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 220,894 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,495,000 after purchasing an additional 47,590 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,811 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after buying an additional 540 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.2% during the 2nd quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 22,283 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,059,000 after buying an additional 10,567 shares during the period. Finally, Certified Advisory Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Certified Advisory Corp now owns 6,075 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.