Citigroup Issues Positive Forecast for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target boosted by research analysts at Citigroup from $64.00 to $68.00 in a report issued on Friday. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target suggests a potential upside of 13.68% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on CSCO. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $59.82 on Friday. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $58.83 and its 200-day moving average is $53.39. The company has a market cap of $238.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.67, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $60.45.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 365,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This trade represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

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