HSBC Reiterates "Hold" Rating for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• HSBC has restated Cisco Systems' stock rating to "hold" with a price objective of $69.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.43% from the current price.
• Overall, Cisco has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from analysts, with a consensus price target of $73.45.
• The company's stock recently opened at $69.30 and reported a quarterly revenue increase of 7.6% year-over-year, reaching $14.67 billion.

HSBC restated their hold rating on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. HSBC currently has a $69.00 price objective on the network equipment provider's stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on CSCO. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $87.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They set a "peer perform" rating for the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, New Street Research reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $74.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $3.10 on Friday, reaching $66.20. 40,854,477 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,656,640. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $47.85 and a twelve month high of $72.55. The company has a fifty day moving average of $67.98 and a 200-day moving average of $63.36. The company has a market capitalization of $262.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $14.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 18.45%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.87 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total value of $154,072.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,331,498.27. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total value of $48,821.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 36,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,366,553.59. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 77,731 shares of company stock valued at $5,021,519. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 892,064 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $55,049,000 after buying an additional 6,501 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.8% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,298 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $389,000 after acquiring an additional 612 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 28.9% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,037,909 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $249,180,000 after acquiring an additional 904,548 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 44.6% during the fourth quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 193,478 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $11,454,000 after purchasing an additional 59,680 shares during the period. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.6% during the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 111,510 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $6,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,839 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.