Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its target price raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $62.00 to $68.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 18.20% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.28.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $57.53 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.61. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $60.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $229.13 billion, a PE ratio of 24.69, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its stake 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares during 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. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $44,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.