Bank of America Upgrades Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) to “Buy”

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $60.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $55.00. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 25.21% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.03.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $47.92 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market capitalization of $194.04 billion, a PE ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $45.56 and a 12-month high of $58.19. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $49.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.32.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 184,879,450 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,664,544,000 after purchasing an additional 4,061,022 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,672,445,000 after purchasing an additional 6,345,954 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,943,593,000 after acquiring an additional 9,160,347 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,835,509,000 after acquiring an additional 59,466,550 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,790,717 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.