KeyCorp Initiates Coverage on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $77.00 price target on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.1%

CSCO opened at $68.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $273.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.88. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $62.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.02. Cisco Systems has a twelve month low of $44.50 and a twelve month high of $69.16.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. The company 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.54, for a total transaction of $571,902.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 174,669 shares in the company, valued at $11,447,806.26. This trade represents a 4.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 388,949,854 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $24,002,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,648 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,796,505,000 after buying an additional 4,832,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,117,146 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,907,599,000 after buying an additional 4,437,450 shares in the last quarter. 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.