J.P. Morgan Securities upgraded CSCO to "overweight" and hiked its price target to $66
Shares of digital communications technology firm Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) are 1.6% higher in pre-market trading following a lofty bull note. J.P. Morgan Securities upgraded CSCO to "overweight" from "neutral" and hiked its price target to $66 from $55, citing recovering demand for the companies' enterprise networking solutions and its positive impact on earnings.
Coming into today, Cisco systems stock was up 14.9% since the start of 2024, with 27.7% added over the last three months. After the $57 level moved in as a layer of support, the security hit its highest level since January 2022, topping out at $58.30 on Nov. 7. Shares are now pacing for their sixth win in seven sessions.
Despite this solid technical foundation, analysts were pessimistic toward CSCO ahead of today's trading. In fact, 13 of 21 covering brokerages rated the stock a tepid "hold," while the 12-month consensus target price of $57.24 was a slim 1.4% discount to Friday's close. This leaves plenty of room for negative sentiment to unwind, and potentially put more wind behind Cisco System stock's sails.
Speculating with options could be the best route, too. Options traders are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations, per CSCO's Schaefer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 25% that sits in the low 23rd percentile of readings from the past 12 months.