Cisco Systems Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 87,660 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 81% compared to the typical daily volume of 48,335 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Melius raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $61.82. 18,543,373 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,532,275. The company has a 50 day moving average of $62.16 and a 200-day moving average of $58.77. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The stock has a market cap of $245.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.62%.

Insider Transactions at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total transaction of $2,060,025.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.99, for a total value of $46,474.38. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 44,155 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,013.45. The trade was a 1.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $132,000. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 76.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 16,947 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 7,338 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.