Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Coverage Initiated at CICC Research

CICC Research started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $78.00 target price on the network equipment provider's stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.95.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $0.81 during trading on Monday, reaching $68.18. The stock had a trading volume of 8,375,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,283,445. The firm's fifty day moving average is $65.50 and its 200 day moving average is $61.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $69.78. The stock has a market cap of $269.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.90.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total value of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 131,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,365,376.28. This trade represents a 10.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total transaction of $1,027,222.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares in the company, valued at $20,281,257.36. This represents a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at $904,542,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 37.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 46,973,293 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,898,722,000 after buying an additional 12,775,066 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter valued at $750,495,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.