Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 62,450,000 shares, a growth of 6.2% from the October 31st total of 58,780,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,700,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,838.63. This trade represents a 8.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,957.20. This represents a 0.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 344,360 shares of company stock valued at $19,782,533 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 62,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,326,000 after acquiring an additional 2,476 shares in the last quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 166.1% in the 3rd quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 1,143 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,214,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $988,499,000 after purchasing an additional 1,195,469 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 714,243 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $38,012,000 after purchasing an additional 5,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 366,728 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $19,517,000 after acquiring an additional 11,178 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on CSCO shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, New Street Research upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.94.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSCO traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $59.34. The company had a trading volume of 2,903,338 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,088,174. The business has a 50 day moving average of $55.83 and a 200-day moving average of $50.54. The company has a market cap of $236.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $59.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

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.