JPMorgan Chase & Co. Initiates Coverage on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) in a research note published on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $53.00 price objective on the network equipment provider’s stock.

CSCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. They issued an overweight rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They set a neutral rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Melius downgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $55.53.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $48.10 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.77 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $48.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $45.56 and a 12 month high of $58.19.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 48.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $124,850.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,121 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,579,865.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock valued at $972,080 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,672,445,000 after buying an additional 6,345,954 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 68,463,463 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,417,011,000 after buying an additional 2,386,508 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after buying an additional 1,790,717 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,549,422 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,717,537,000 after buying an additional 1,847,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth $2,528,939,000. 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.