Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) shares fell 0.7% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $64.29 and last traded at $64.40. 2,448,029 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 19,402,484 shares. The stock had previously closed at $64.84.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms have commented on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $66.53.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems Price Performance
The stock has a market capitalization of $254.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.65 and a 200 day moving average of $56.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Cisco Systems Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems's previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is currently 71.62%.
Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company's 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total value of $34,392.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 50,767 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,921 shares of company stock worth $4,298,667 over the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,075,320,000 after buying an additional 1,262,017 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter worth about $3,297,905,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.
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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