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

Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a peer perform rating on the network equipment provider's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Barclays reiterated an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, June 26th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 price target for the company. Finally, New Street Research reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $69.53.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO traded down $0.81 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $67.95. 14,698,247 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,363,227. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $269.08 billion, a PE ratio of 27.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.90. The business's 50-day moving average price is $65.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.81. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $69.78.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion during 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total transaction of $637,205.17. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 257,162 shares in the company, valued at $16,450,653.14. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 over the last quarter. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 612 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 904,548 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in 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 valued at $11,454,000 after purchasing an additional 59,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlTi Global Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 49.8% during the fourth quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 20,483 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,217,000 after purchasing an additional 6,811 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.