Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $120.00 to $130.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 6.71% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $87.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $87.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. HSBC upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $77.00 to $137.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $120.64.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.6%

CSCO opened at $121.83 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $480.19 billion, a PE ratio of 39.56, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.01. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $63.93 and a 1-year high of $130.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $101.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.26.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The network equipment provider reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.03. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 28.44% and a net margin of 20.14%.The business had revenue of $15.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.96 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Cisco Systems has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.160-1.180 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 4.270-4.290 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 7,169 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.28, for a total transaction of $840,780.32. Following the transaction, the insider owned 246,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,937,315.36. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 3,132 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.74, for a total transaction of $249,745.68. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 188,613 shares in the company, valued at $15,040,000.62. The trade was a 1.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 51,636 shares of company stock worth $5,698,459 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,473,272,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 8,718.3% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 51,952,421 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $400,190,000 after buying an additional 51,363,281 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 103.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 29,289,151 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,256,144,000 after buying an additional 14,874,407 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 110.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,406,442 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,259,369,000 after buying an additional 9,648,265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 50,320,905 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,876,219,000 after buying an additional 7,679,422 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.