Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $82.00 to $91.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Barclays increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.55.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock opened at $76.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $300.28 billion, a PE ratio of 28.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50 day moving average of $74.24 and a 200 day moving average of $70.03. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $52.11 and a 52 week high of $80.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The network equipment provider reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 18.38% and a return on equity of 27.29%. The business had revenue of $14.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Cisco Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.080-4.140 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.010-1.030 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.65%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 17,526 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.95, for a total transaction of $1,190,891.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 198,855 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,512,197.25. This trade represents a 8.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 163,896 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.86, for a total transaction of $12,760,942.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 281,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,887,068.88. This represents a 36.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 1,021,910 shares of company stock worth $79,463,804 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bare Financial Services Inc raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 531.0% in the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 366 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 89.4% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 409 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 96.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 408 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.