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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 82,658 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 66% compared to the typical volume of 49,942 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 293,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,659,200. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after buying an additional 1,530,468 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the first quarter worth about $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 26.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,906,357 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Cisco Systems stock traded up $2.30 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $56.38. 32,367,792 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,193,113. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.51 and a 200 day moving average of $48.45. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $56.41. The company has a market capitalization of $227.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.87%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. HSBC upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.74.

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.