UBS Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price target boosted by UBS Group from $55.00 to $62.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the network equipment provider’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 7.90% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on CSCO. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $57.46 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.76. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38. The company has a market capitalization of $229.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 7.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. The trade was a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.