JPMorgan Chase & Co. Initiates Coverage on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $53.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a hold rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an overweight rating and a $58.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $48.14 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.17. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 23.49% and a return on equity of 33.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.63%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Stonegate Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 1,424,546 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $71,099,000 after purchasing an additional 8,476 shares during the period. Sutton Place Investors LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 7.4% in the first quarter. Sutton Place Investors LLC now owns 22,204 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,108,000 after buying an additional 1,521 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter worth about $222,000. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 79,429 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,964,000 after buying an additional 2,836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $340,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.