Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded by BNP Paribas to Outperform Rating

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $72.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $59.43 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.23. The company has a market capitalization of $236.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 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 has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $62.31.

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

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 207,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,299,563.62. This represents a 1.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 327.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after acquiring an additional 5,223,800 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,542 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Cisco Systems by 79.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $477,463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,975,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $10,297,506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,241,682 shares during the last quarter. 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.