Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Trading 0.4% Higher - Time to Buy?

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) traded up 0.4% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $63.64 and last traded at $63.68. 3,282,378 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 20,302,258 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.42.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.0%

The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $252.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.81.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. The company's revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is presently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total transaction of $46,474.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 11,808 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $760,080.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 200,191 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,886,294.67. This trade represents a 5.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 34,239 shares of company stock worth $2,181,437. Insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 valued at $24,002,095,000 after buying an additional 1,865,648 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,796,505,000 after buying an additional 4,832,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,117,146 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $2,907,599,000 after acquiring an additional 4,437,450 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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