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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 151,690 call options on the company. This is an increase of 204% compared to the typical volume of 49,904 call options.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 2,407 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total value of $154,072.07. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 177,027 shares in the company, valued at $11,331,498.27. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total transaction of $48,821.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 36,937 shares in the company, valued at $2,366,553.59. This represents a 2.02% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 160.4% during the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of CSCO opened at $69.64 on Friday. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $69.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $275.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $63.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 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, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 66.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.53.

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.