Evercore ISI Raises Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $60.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price hoisted by Evercore ISI from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. HSBC raised shares of Cisco Systems from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price target for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a neutral rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $55.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.0 %

Cisco Systems stock opened at $51.97 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $209.38 billion, a PE ratio of 17.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $48.52 and a 200 day moving average of $48.04. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at $33,794,278.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $1,115,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,659,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Quarry LP raised its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the period. Retirement Group LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 56.8% in the first quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 726 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Tidemark LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.