Key Points
- Director Michael Capellas sold 16,150 Cisco shares at an average price of $77.28 on Dec. 18 for $1,248,072, leaving him with 157,218 shares — a 9.32% reduction in his stake.
- Researchers reported a China-linked hacking group is exploiting a vulnerability in popular Cisco products, creating potential remediation costs, customer disruption and reputational risk for the company.
- Cisco beat Q results with $1.00 EPS and $14.88B revenue (up 7.5% y/y), set FY2026 guidance of 4.080–4.140 EPS, announced a $0.41 quarterly dividend (annualized $1.64, ~2.1% yield), and has seen several analyst price-target upgrades supporting upside.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) Director Michael Capellas sold 10,850 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director owned 146,368 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,289,363.84. This trade represents a 6.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.
Cisco Systems Price Performance
NASDAQ CSCO opened at $78.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.11 and a 1 year high of $80.82. The company has a market cap of $309.84 billion, a PE ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.87. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $74.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.17.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The network equipment provider reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $14.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.77 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 18.38% and a return on equity of 27.29%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. Cisco Systems has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.080-4.140 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.010-1.030 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.
Cisco Systems Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is currently 61.65%.
Key Headlines Impacting Cisco Systems
Here are the key news stories impacting Cisco Systems this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade/price-target lift: Morgan Stanley raised its price target on CSCO to $91, supporting upside expectations and likely helping buying interest. Morgan Stanley Boosts Cisco Systems Price Target
- Positive Sentiment: Dividend and corporate cash returns remain supportive: Cisco’s recent dividend (annualized $1.64, yield ~2.1%) and strong cash metrics underpin investor confidence in the name. Positive Sentiment: dividend
- Neutral Sentiment: Valuation/watch-the-run: Coverage pieces are reassessing Cisco after a ~37% one‑year share-price climb — investors should balance growth story vs. stretched multiples. Reassessing Valuation
- Negative Sentiment: Security risk: Researchers disclosed that a China‑linked hacking group is exploiting a vulnerability in popular Cisco products to target enterprise customers — this raises potential remediation costs, reputation risk, and near‑term customer concern. TechCrunch: Chinese hacking campaign
- Negative Sentiment: Insider sales: Two directors disclosed multi‑hundred‑thousand to >$1M stock sales (Michael D. Capellas and Kristina M. Johnson), which reduces insider ownership and can be interpreted negatively by some investors. SEC filings: Capellas Form 4 and Johnson Form 4
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems
A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,816,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 413.3% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 22,393,371 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $1,553,645,000 after purchasing an additional 18,030,441 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at approximately $904,542,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 46.2% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,836,858 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,833,261,000 after purchasing an additional 12,904,969 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 110.2% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,406,442 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $1,259,369,000 after purchasing an additional 9,648,265 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Melius Research raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $84.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $84.55.
View Our Latest Report on CSCO
About Cisco Systems
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Featured Stories
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from InsiderTrades.com in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].
