Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Price Target Raised to $70.00 at Piper Sandler

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective boosted by Piper Sandler from $64.00 to $70.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen cut Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.90.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $69.30 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $47.85 and a 52 week high of $72.55. The stock has a market cap of $274.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $67.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $14.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 18.45% and a return on equity of 27.24%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.87 EPS. Analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,726 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total transaction of $571,902.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 174,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,447,806.26. The trade was a 4.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total value of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 131,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 77,731 shares of company stock valued at $5,021,519. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.9% during the 2nd quarter. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. now owns 10,020 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $695,000 after buying an additional 1,870 shares in the last quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.2% during the second quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,091 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $628,000 after buying an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. Camarda Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 13.6% during the second quarter. Camarda Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after buying an additional 2,673 shares during the last quarter. Sentinel Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter worth about $358,000. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,406,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cisco Systems

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.