Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Up 1.8% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Cisco Systems shares rose 1.8% on Friday, trading at $71.18, with a significant drop in trading volume to approximately 5.2 million shares compared to an average of 21 million.
• Analyst ratings for Cisco include a mix of "buy" and "hold," with a consensus average target price of $70.55 and various analysts raising their price targets following recent earnings reports.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.96, exceeding estimates and showing an 11.4% year-over-year revenue growth, alongside a declared dividend yielding 2.3%.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1.8% on Friday . The company traded as high as $71.30 and last traded at $71.18. Approximately 5,199,810 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 21,066,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $69.90.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an "in-line" rating and set a $72.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Eight equities research 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.55.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $67.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.96. The stock has a market cap of $283.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.84 and a beta of 0.91.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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 was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total transaction of $1,027,222.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 309,543 shares in the company, valued at $20,281,257.36. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total value of $48,821.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 36,937 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,553.59. This represents a 2.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 89.4% during the second quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 409 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Brown Shipley& Co Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

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.

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