Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Earns Hold Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a report issued on Monday morning, Benzinga reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on CSCO. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Cisco Systems from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a neutral rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $56.47.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

CSCO stock opened at $45.62 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $183.79 billion, a PE ratio of 15.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.85. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $45.27 and a one year high of $58.19. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $47.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 21.88% and a return on equity of 30.82%. The business’s revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.87%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total transaction of $386,691.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total value of $386,691.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 26,331 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total transaction of $1,213,859.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 725,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,439,234.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,725 shares of company stock worth $1,755,567. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,528,939,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $840,538,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after acquiring an additional 6,345,954 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 47.1% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 18,922,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $955,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 438.4% during the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,924,988 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $245,806,000 after acquiring an additional 4,010,228 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.