Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Cisco Systems Call Options (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 71,548 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 34% compared to the average volume of 53,501 call options.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.09 on Friday, hitting $57.83. 2,719,123 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 19,027,750. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $230.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.69. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $59.38.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.62%. Cisco Systems’s revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $55.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, August 15th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.36, for a total value of $170,166.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 47,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,376,085.52. This represents a 6.68 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total transaction of $64,965.76. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,798,131 in the last three months. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after buying an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during 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 buying an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after buying an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.