Traders Purchase High 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 traders acquired 245,742 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 443% compared to the typical daily volume of 45,258 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.2% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 60,993 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,898,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at $451,000. Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the second quarter worth $613,000. Magnus Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.6% in the second quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC now owns 10,350 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cisco Systems by 8.2% in the second quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,096 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $242,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $58.92. 9,225,739 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,212,635. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.18 and a 200 day moving average of $52.53. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $234.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.28.

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.