Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $71.00 at Citigroup

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price boosted by Citigroup from $68.00 to $71.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $64.26 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.50 and a 12 month high of $66.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.60. The firm has a market cap of $255.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,013.45. This trade represents a 1.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,635 shares of company stock valued at $931,901. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. 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.