Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target increased by Bank of America from $60.00 to $72.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. HSBC raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $59.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.78%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 6.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,821,929.52. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 226.9% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,423 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,319,000 after acquiring an additional 18,339 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter valued at about $46,071,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 90.0% in the 1st quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 650,818 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $32,482,000 after purchasing an additional 308,300 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,200,000. Finally, Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 4.8% during the first quarter. Te Ahumairangi Investment Management Ltd now owns 178,218 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,895,000 after buying an additional 8,210 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.