Piper Sandler Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price increased by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $57.00 to $72.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 14.14% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.17.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.55 on Thursday, reaching $63.08. 16,455,203 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,967,555. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.89 and a 200-day moving average of $55.36. The company has a market capitalization of $251.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a PEG ratio of 4.63 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.6% in the 4th quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 34,881 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,065,000 after acquiring an additional 7,326 shares during the last quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 250.0% during the 4th quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 700 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 789,143 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,694,000 after purchasing an additional 105,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 197,008 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,663,000 after buying an additional 12,268 shares during the last quarter. 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.