Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Hits New 12-Month High - What's Next?

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $68.53 and last traded at $68.19, with a volume of 19378861 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $67.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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. Citigroup lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market cap of $271.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.02.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The company's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,185 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total value of $265,789.35. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,103 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,921.53. This represents a 9.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 309,543 shares in the company, valued at $20,281,257.36. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 49.5% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,392,000 after purchasing an additional 24,562 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $542,000 after buying an additional 2,474 shares during the last quarter. Sabal Trust CO raised its position in Cisco Systems by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Sabal Trust CO now owns 9,819 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $581,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $169,000. Finally, Nwam LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 19,176 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,135,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.