Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Rating Upgraded by BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. BNP Paribas currently has $72.00 price objective on the network equipment provider's stock.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $62.72.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.35 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $59.43. The stock had a trading volume of 25,470,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,314,959. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $59.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.23. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $62.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $236.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.51, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.84.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 219,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,596,059. The trade was a 20.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 599 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors 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.