Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $72.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.14% from the stock’s previous close.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.17.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO stock traded up $0.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $63.08. 16,455,203 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,967,555. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. 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 $251.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.36.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. 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.