Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $75.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $72.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 17.89% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $63.62 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $253.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a PEG 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 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.50. The business’s 50 day moving average is $58.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.66.

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

Cisco Systems declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. This represents a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 14,635 shares of company stock worth $931,901. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth 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. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $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.