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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 70,685 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 47% compared to the average volume of 48,197 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.50.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the second quarter valued at about $62,000. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 9.2% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 697,285 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $33,128,000 after purchasing an additional 58,987 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in Cisco Systems during the second quarter valued at $242,000. Sienna Gestion increased its position in Cisco Systems by 41.2% in the second quarter. Sienna Gestion now owns 310,525 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $14,746,000 after buying an additional 90,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 95,579 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,541,000 after buying an additional 9,127 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.7 %

CSCO stock traded up $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.23. 23,800,968 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,142,955. The company has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.43. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $60.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 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, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

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.