Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Given New $77.00 Price Target at HSBC

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) had its price objective increased by HSBC from $74.00 to $77.00 in a research note published on Friday,MarketScreener reports. HSBC currently has a hold rating on the network equipment provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Barclays increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.19.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 2.5%

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $76.85 on Friday. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $52.11 and a 1 year high of $88.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $77.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.07. The stock has a market cap of $303.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.97, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The network equipment provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.88% and a net margin of 19.22%.The business had revenue of $15.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 61.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 428 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.33, for a total transaction of $34,381.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 32,176 shares in the company, valued at $2,584,698.08. This represents a 1.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michael D. Capellas sold 10,850 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.13, for a total value of $836,860.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 146,368 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,289,363.84. The trade was a 6.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 507,122 shares of company stock valued at $39,545,816 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Cisco Systems by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 398,943,293 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $30,730,602,000 after buying an additional 4,049,893 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 195,521,161 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,060,995,000 after buying an additional 1,057,962 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 99,252,395 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $6,864,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,157,704 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 75,326,258 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,802,382,000 after acquiring an additional 206,352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at $4,473,272,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Cisco Systems

Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Cisco unveiled the Silicon One G300 switching chip designed for large AI cluster buildouts, positioning the company to compete in a multi‑hundred‑billion dollar AI infrastructure market — a clear long‑term growth catalyst. Silicon One G300 announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results beat both EPS and revenue expectations and management highlighted strong AI/customer orders (notably ~$2.1B of AI infrastructure orders), supporting revenue momentum and the firm’s raised FY guidance. That underpins upside if Cisco converts AI demand into sustained margin expansion. Zacks coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple sell‑side firms raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views (examples: CICC raised its target to $96; UBS, Citi, BNP/Exane and others increased targets), which can support further upside via analyst-driven flows and ETF reweighting. CICC price target update
• Neutral Sentiment: Free cash flow fell year‑over‑year but remains positive with healthy margins; analysts note strong FCF long term despite higher capex for AI initiatives — this reduces downside risk but flags near‑term investment drag. TalkMarkets FCF piece
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat and other bullish pieces argue for large long‑term upside (price‑target extrapolations to $150–$182), but these are speculative scenarios that rely on sustained AI share gains and margin recovery. MarketBeat long-term thesis
• Negative Sentiment: Investors punished Cisco after management disclosed gross‑margin pressure driven by a global memory shortage and higher component costs; that margin miss triggered a sharp selloff and created near‑term volatility risk for CSCO. CNBC margin story
• Negative Sentiment: Despite upbeat revenue/guidance, some analysts and market commentary viewed Cisco’s margin outlook and guidance as mixed, prompting sector weakness and headline risk that could keep short‑term selling pressure elevated. MarketWatch on market impact
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data in the feed is inconsistent/zero and appears not to be a meaningful new factor for intraday moves. (Days‑to‑cover figures show no material change.)

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software and telecommunications equipment. Its core business focuses on enabling enterprise and service-provider networks through products such as routers, switches, network security appliances and wireless systems. Over time Cisco has broadened its portfolio to emphasize software-defined networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and edge computing solutions that help organizations build and manage modern IT environments.

In addition to hardware, Cisco offers a growing range of software platforms and subscription services for network management, security, analytics and collaboration.