Morgan Stanley picks Cisco as the best second-half stock

Morgan Stanley on Tuesday picked Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) as the best stock for the back half of 2021. The $57 price target representing a 7% growth, however, might not be as lucrative as some would expect from a stock that Morgan Stanley rates at ‘outperform’.  

Shannon Saccocia’s remarks on CNBC’s “Halftime Report”

Chief Investment Officer Shannon Saccocia of Boston Private, however, is comfortable with a 7% growth in the second half of 2021. As a shareholder of Cisco, she expressed confidence on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” that the stock’s potential goes well beyond the next six months.

Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis?

Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.

“The knock on Cisco is that everybody is talking about everything moving to the cloud. Hybrid environments are going to persist, and Cisco is very well situated to take advantage of that. Great dividend with free cash flow that supports that dividend; I love the stock, and I love it for a lot longer term than just the next six months,” Saccocia commented.

Cisco reported its Q3 financial results in May that topped analysts’ estimates for earnings and revenue. Its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, however, was weaker than expected.

Peter Najarian says Cisco is a very stable company

During the same interview with CNBC, cofounder of optionMONSTER, Peter Najarian also dubbed Cisco “a very stable company”. While he acknowledged that performance hasn’t been promising since he hopped onto the stock in May, he’s positive that things will change in the future.

“I don’t feel nervous about this name or to the downside whatsoever. When I look at the PE (price to earnings ratio), it still trades very inexpensive, especially if you want to trade against some of the other big-cap tech names. This name continues to trade at a PE that’s very palatable, but that’s probably why we’re not seeing as much upside.”

The news comes only a week after Evercore also assigned a ‘buy’ rating to Cisco. Shares of the company closed about 0.5% down on Tuesday.