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

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target raised by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from $60.00 to $64.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target suggests a potential upside of 0.60% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CSCO. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $63.62 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $58.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $253.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $66.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.05. The company 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 quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to reacquire up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 1,084,181 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,905,000 after acquiring an additional 204,527 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 2,269,541 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $140,053,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,827 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 10,456 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $645,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Cisco Systems by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 484,779 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $29,916,000 after acquiring an additional 35,337 shares during the period. Finally, HFM Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $664,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.