Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Rating Lowered to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was downgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $120.00 target price on the network equipment provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.82% from the stock’s previous close.

CSCO has been the subject of several other research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $132.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $137.00 to $120.00 in a report on Friday, August 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $127.87.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $103.61 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $109.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.42. The company has a market cap of $408.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.01. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $70.54 and a 12-month high of $130.37.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The network equipment provider reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.05. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.16% and a net margin of 20.95%. The business had revenue of $17.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.84 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.99 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Cisco Systems has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.050-5.110 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.320-1.340 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 4.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya Subaiya sold 5,832 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.47, for a total value of $650,093.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 128,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,310,741.54. The trade was a 4.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 21,628 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.54, for a total transaction of $2,412,387.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 602,710 shares in the company, valued at $67,226,273.40. The trade was a 3.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 44,869 shares of company stock worth $5,005,620. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,129,647,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 207,106,569 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,278,492,000 after acquiring an additional 13,512,872 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,892,379,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 43,450,141 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,103,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,143,106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth $4,714,574,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that develops networking, cybersecurity, collaboration and observability solutions for businesses, government organizations and service providers. Its offerings include routers, switches, wireless networking equipment, data-center infrastructure, security software and services, as well as technologies that support cloud and hybrid IT environments.

The company also provides collaboration tools through its Webex portfolio, cloud-managed networking through Cisco Meraki and security and observability capabilities that include technologies from Splunk, which Cisco acquired in 2024.