Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sets New 52-Week High - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) hit a new 52-week high at $69.86, with a recent trading price of $69.75 and strong trading volume.
• Various analysts have provided ratings on Cisco, with KeyCorp giving it an "overweight" rating with a $77 price target, and the consensus rating being a "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $70.55.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, resulting in a 2.4% yield and a dividend payout ratio of 66.94%.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $69.86 and last traded at $69.75, with a volume of 154090 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $69.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. New Street Research reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Barclays reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $70.55.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 2.7%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market capitalization of $284.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $67.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.04.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. 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 previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 688,409 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,478,105.49. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the firm'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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 257,162 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 have sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSCO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 388,949,854 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $24,002,095,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,648 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 99,252,395 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $6,864,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157,704 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,796,505,000 after acquiring an additional 4,832,813 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,117,146 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,907,599,000 after buying an additional 4,437,450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 37.4% during the first 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. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.