Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Downgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on CSCO. BNP Paribas raised shares of Cisco Systems from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 13th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an overweight rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $52.00 price objective (up previously from $51.00) on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a neutral rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $56.47.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $46.42 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.30. The stock has a market cap of $187.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $46.20 and a 12-month high of $58.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 21.88% and a return on equity of 30.82%. The firm had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.87%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $697,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,457 shares of company stock worth $1,358,772 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. 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 last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 68,463,463 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,417,011,000 after purchasing an additional 2,386,508 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,069,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,790,717 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,717,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,847,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,528,939,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.