Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) fell 0.3% on Monday . The company traded as low as $52.11 and last traded at $54.38. 12,490,677 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 19,700,105 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.54.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CSCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $66.00.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.3 %
The stock has a market cap of $228.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $61.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.98.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Cisco Systems Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.
Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems
In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $1,283,626.89. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,605 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,616,318.05. The trade was a 5.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC increased 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 worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About Cisco Systems
(
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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.
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