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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 70,685 call options on the company. This is an increase of 47% compared to the typical daily volume of 48,197 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.50.

Insider Activity

In other Cisco Systems news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 in the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $239,000. Apeiron RIA LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $409,000 after buying an additional 405 shares during the period. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 53.2% during the 4th quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 6,492 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $384,000 after buying an additional 2,254 shares during the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 147,798 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $8,750,000 after acquiring an additional 12,892 shares during the period. Finally, Donoghue Forlines LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 38,548 shares during the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

CSCO stock opened at $60.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $239.88 billion, a PE ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $58.87 and a 200-day moving average of $53.43. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $60.95.

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

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is 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.