Morgan Stanley Boosts Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target to $70.00

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective upped by Morgan Stanley from $67.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 2.87% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $77.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $68.05 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $65.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $62.11. The company has a market cap of $269.48 billion, a PE ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.90. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $69.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The business’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total transaction of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 131,676 shares in the company, valued at $8,365,376.28. This trade represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total transaction of $612,330.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 181,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,505,311. This trade represents a 5.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Pandora Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by 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.