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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 82,658 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 66% compared to the typical daily volume of 49,942 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $368,697.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 165,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,181,307.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 7,462 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total value of $368,697.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 165,580 shares in the company, valued at $8,181,307.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gleason Group Inc. grew its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.9% in the third quarter. Gleason Group Inc. now owns 22,683 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,207,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 12,161 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $647,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Baker Boyer National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Baker Boyer National Bank now owns 8,237 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $411,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Holland Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Holland Advisory Services Inc. now owns 4,231 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WealthPLAN Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. HSBC raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Jefferies Financial Group cut 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. Hsbc Global Res raised Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.74.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $56.38 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $56.41. The company has a market capitalization of $227.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.84%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.87%.

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.