Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Barclays from $61.00 to $66.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 3.74% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.0%

Cisco Systems stock opened at $63.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $253.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, 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 has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $66.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $58.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.66.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 200,191 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,294.67. This represents a 5.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.