Cisco Systems Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 82,658 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 66% compared to the average daily volume of 49,942 call options.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $56.40 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $56.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $50.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99, a P/E/G ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total value of $368,697.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 165,580 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,307.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,376,085.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 165,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,181,307.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CSCO. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $68,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 61,502 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,070,000 after acquiring an additional 8,394 shares during the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 92,234 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,603,000 after acquiring an additional 1,913 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 5.6% in the first quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 21,995 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170 shares during the period. Finally, Tompkins Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.6% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 240,439 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $12,000,000 after purchasing an additional 17,034 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.74.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.