Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) had its price objective upped by Morgan Stanley from $67.00 to $70.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the network equipment provider's stock.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $70.35.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock traded down $0.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $68.05. The stock had a trading volume of 16,138,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,295,616. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $69.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $269.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.90. The company's 50-day moving average price is $65.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.09.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

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 $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total value of $612,330.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 181,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,505,311. This represents a 5.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.53, for a total transaction of $952,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 131,676 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,365,376.28. This trade represents a 10.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Pandora Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.