Short Interest in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Decreases By 7.1%

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 48,430,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the September 15th total of 52,150,000 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 18,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Despite investors’ hopes for a rebound in Networking Equipment demand to boost Cisco’s fourth-quarter 2024 performance, the anticipation is tempered by limited indications of a significant recovery in demand. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $52.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. West Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its position in Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 56.8% during the first quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 726 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

CSCO stock traded down $0.21 on Thursday, reaching $56.17. The company had a trading volume of 11,550,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,155,223. The company’s fifty day moving average is $50.73 and its 200 day moving average is $48.50. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $56.58. The company has a market cap of $226.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.94, a PEG ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.91.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is 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.