Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Evercore ISI Analyst Says

Key Points

• Evercore ISI raised its price target for Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $74.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.61% from the current stock price.
• Cisco's stock received multiple upgrades from other analysts, with the price targets ranging from $65.00 to $83.00, indicating broad confidence in the company's future performance.
• The company reported a 7.6% increase in quarterly revenue, achieving $14.67 billion while exceeding analyst expectations; the recent earnings per share (EPS) of $0.99 also beat forecasts.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Evercore ISI from $72.00 to $74.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "in-line" rating on the network equipment provider's stock. Evercore ISI's price objective points to a potential upside of 5.61% from the company's current price.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on CSCO. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. CICC Research began coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, July 14th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $78.00 target price for the company. New Street Research restated a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Eight 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $72.60.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO traded down $0.33 on Thursday, reaching $70.07. The company had a trading volume of 16,448,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,360,365. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $47.85 and a 52-week high of $72.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.21. The company has a market cap of $277.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.91.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $14.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.63 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 899 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.27, for a total transaction of $57,778.73. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 255,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,413,079.79. This trade represents a 0.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total value of $1,027,222.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares of the company's stock, 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. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,816,825,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $904,542,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 46.2% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,836,858 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,833,261,000 after purchasing an additional 12,904,969 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 37.4% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 12,775,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $750,495,000. 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.

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