Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given New $96.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $95.00 to $96.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on CSCO. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Evercore upgraded Cisco Systems from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $100.00 in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.81.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $84.50 on Thursday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $53.83 and a 52 week high of $88.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $333.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $79.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.54.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 19.22%.The company had revenue of $15.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.95%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.54, for a total value of $42,724.54. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 27,957 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,167,785.78. The trade was a 1.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,981 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.50, for a total value of $634,489.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 187,097 shares in the company, valued at $14,874,211.50. This represents a 4.09% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 46,431 shares of company stock worth $3,574,820. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $4,473,272,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 8,718.3% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 51,952,421 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $400,190,000 after purchasing an additional 51,363,281 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 103.2% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 29,289,151 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,256,144,000 after purchasing an additional 14,874,407 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 110.2% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,406,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,259,369,000 after purchasing an additional 9,648,265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 50,320,905 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,876,219,000 after purchasing an additional 7,679,422 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target to $96 and kept an “overweight” rating, signaling analyst conviction and upward earnings/valuation expectations for CSCO. JPMorgan price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 FY26 results and commentary point to an AI-driven networking surge (reported ~21% revenue growth), supporting the view that infrastructure spend is strengthening. Cisco’s AI networking surge
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Cisco is in advanced talks to buy Astrix Security, which would expand Cisco’s AI-agent security and subscription-software strategy if completed. Cisco Astrix talks
• Positive Sentiment: Partner ecosystem momentum: Endace announced integrations with many security platforms, including Cisco XDR, underscoring sustained enterprise demand for packet capture and Cisco security tooling. Endace partner program
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector note — Ciena’s large rally on AI/cloud demand shows strong investor appetite for networking/infra names, which can lift interest in Cisco as a larger peer. Ciena surge
• Neutral Sentiment: Market coverage: a Zacks roundup noted CSCO has outperformed recently, reflecting the same positive drivers above but not adding new fundamental data. Zacks market roundup
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded Cisco from “strong-buy” to “hold,” which could temper momentum from upgrades if other shops follow. Zacks downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha piece warns that the $28B Splunk deal tripled Cisco’s debt and compressed free cash flow, arguing valuation risks and limited dividend upside until FCF recovers. Seeking Alpha FCF analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst/market caution pieces note that growth can be volatile in networking names and stress the need to monitor margin and cash-flow recovery post-M&A. Growth stock caution

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.