Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

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

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $59.48 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $56.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.70. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $59.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.89 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 4.43 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 (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 4,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.73, for a total transaction of $291,542.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 344,360 shares of company stock valued at $19,782,533 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 222.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 661 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 116.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 574 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CSCO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.94.

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.