Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Up 0.8% - Here's What Happened

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) rose 0.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $60.95 and last traded at $60.77. Approximately 2,132,520 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 17,835,394 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.30.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $66.63.

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Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.5 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $61.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.11. The firm has a market cap of $239.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. This is a boost from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 71.62%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 19,929 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 $21,616,318.05. This trade represents a 5.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total transaction of $125,345.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 191,184 shares in the company, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,547 shares of company stock worth $4,275,553. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after purchasing an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $560,722,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $413,491,000. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $362,907,000 after purchasing an additional 5,223,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

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.