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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 71,548 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 34% compared to the average daily volume of 53,501 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at $6,821,929.52. The trade was a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 22,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $1,115,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 293,184 shares in the company, valued at $14,659,200. This represents a 7.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 35,924 shares of company stock worth $1,798,131. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% in the third quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.42.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $57.83. The company had a trading volume of 2,719,123 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,027,750. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 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 $59.38. The stock has a market cap of $230.78 billion, a PE ratio of 24.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day moving average is $54.00 and its 200 day moving average is $49.69.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.62% and a net margin of 17.73%. The firm’s revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.67%.

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.