Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Short Interest Up 19.5% in May

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 57,510,000 shares, a growth of 19.5% from the April 30th total of 48,120,000 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 23,430,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $68.00.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of Cisco Systems stock traded up $1.44 on Friday, hitting $66.06. The company's stock had a trading volume of 20,913,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,135,383. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $44.50 and a 52-week high of $66.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $59.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.27. The company has a market capitalization of $261.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.94%.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network equipment provider to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 29,784 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.61, for a total transaction of $1,924,344.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 688,409 shares in the company, valued at $44,478,105.49. The trade was a 4.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 71,400 shares of company stock valued at $4,564,439 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 388,949,854 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $24,002,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,648 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after acquiring an additional 13,285,052 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,297,905,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 47,238,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,796,505,000 after acquiring an additional 4,832,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 47,117,146 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $2,907,599,000 after acquiring an additional 4,437,450 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.