Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Stock Rating Upgraded by KeyCorp

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was upgraded by stock analysts at KeyCorp to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on CSCO. Citigroup upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. 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. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.11.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock opened at $68.19 on Wednesday. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $68.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $62.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.95. The firm has a market cap of $270.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total value of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,478,105.49. This represents a 4.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the 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 now owns 181,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,505,311. This represents a 5.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 160.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently 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.