Barclays Raises Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $61.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Barclays from $56.00 to $61.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price target suggests a potential downside of 2.45% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.22.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $62.53 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $63.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $59.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.36. The company has a market capitalization of $249.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84.

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

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

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’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 $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.7% during the fourth 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 shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 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.