Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given New $70.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

Key Points

• Analysts at Piper Sandler have raised their price target for Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $70.00, maintaining a "neutral" rating, indicating a potential upside of 1.07% from the current stock price.
• Cisco Systems reported a quarterly EPS of $0.99, slightly beating analysts' expectations, with revenue of $14.67 billion reflecting a 7.6% increase year-over-year.
• Insider trading activity shows significant share sales, with CEO Charles Robbins selling nearly 30,000 shares, representing a 4.15% decrease in his position, which raises questions about insider confidence.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $64.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "neutral" rating on the network equipment provider's stock. Piper Sandler's price objective indicates a potential upside of 1.07% from the company's current price.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen cut Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $72.90.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded down $1.14 on Thursday, reaching $69.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 20,586,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,396,711. The company has a market capitalization of $274.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.27, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.91. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $47.85 and a 52-week high of $72.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $14.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business's revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the transaction, the insider owned 257,162 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total value of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 688,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,478,105.49. This trade represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bare Financial Services Inc raised its position in Cisco Systems by 531.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 366 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 89.4% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 409 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

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.

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