Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 71,548 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 34% compared to the average daily volume of 53,501 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,017 shares in the company, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total transaction of $31,319.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 46,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,258,974.53. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after purchasing an additional 1,530,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $1.39 on Thursday, hitting $57.79. 9,875,563 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,996,100. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $53.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.64. The company has a market capitalization of $230.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.68.

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.