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

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $56.00 to $61.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased 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. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $63.84 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $254.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $59.89 and its 200 day moving average is $55.36. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 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.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This trade represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristina M. Johnson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.87, for a total transaction of $449,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 65,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,946,331.05. This represents a 10.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,239 shares of company stock worth $2,166,612 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 57.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $273,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,155,964 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $60,979,000 after acquiring an additional 38,000 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $480,555,000 after acquiring an additional 52,711 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 36,707 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,954,000 after purchasing an additional 847 shares during the period. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.8% during the third quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 188,268 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $10,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,553 shares in 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.