Cisco Systems Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 151,690 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 204% compared to the average volume of 49,904 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $63.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $69.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total transaction of $637,205.17. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 257,162 shares in the company, valued at $16,450,653.14. The trade was a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total transaction of $612,330.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 181,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,505,311. This trade represents a 5.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock valued at $6,271,054. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the 4th quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSCO traded up $1.05 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $69.64. 17,973,495 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,328,057. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $275.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.15 and a beta of 0.90. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $69.78. The firm's 50-day moving average is $63.93 and its 200-day moving average is $61.45.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 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, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.94%.

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.