Traders Buy High Volume of Cisco Systems Call Options (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders bought 94,404 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 47% compared to the average daily volume of 64,286 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $53.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com lowered Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.47.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,378 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total value of $155,016.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 52,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,430,013.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,378 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total value of $155,016.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 52,953 shares in the company, valued at $2,430,013.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total value of $386,691.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,717,209.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,106 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,923. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 1,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 636 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 41.9% in the 4th quarter. Morton Brown Family Wealth LLC now owns 704 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3,500.0% in the 4th quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 720 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.2 %

CSCO opened at $47.29 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.89. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.95 and a one year high of $58.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.18. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.82% and a net margin of 21.88%. The business had revenue of $12.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

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.