Stock 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 activity on Friday. Traders bought 70,685 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 47% compared to the average daily volume of 48,197 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CSCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $60.23 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a PE ratio of 25.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.91 and a 200-day moving average of $53.52. Cisco Systems has a one year low of $44.50 and a one year high of $60.95.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 68.67%.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 3,042 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.19, for a total value of $180,055.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 207,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,299,563.62. This trade represents a 1.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. Company insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSCO. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $239,000. Apeiron RIA LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 6,910 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $409,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 6,492 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 2,254 shares in the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Cisco Systems by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 147,798 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,750,000 after purchasing an additional 12,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Donoghue Forlines LLC increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 157.3% in the 4th quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 63,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after buying an additional 38,548 shares during the period. 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.