Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday, Marketbeat reports. Bank of America currently has $60.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $55.00.

CSCO has been the topic of several other research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Barclays raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup began coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued a neutral rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $56.03.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO opened at $47.79 on Monday. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $45.56 and a 1-year high of $58.19. The stock has a market cap of $193.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 48.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total value of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,579,865.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 184,879,450 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,664,544,000 after buying an additional 4,061,022 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the fourth 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. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,943,593,000 after purchasing an additional 9,160,347 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.