Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Short Interest Update

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 56,750,000 shares, a decline of 9.1% from the November 15th total of 62,450,000 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 17,540,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of CSCO stock traded down $0.23 on Friday, hitting $58.62. 14,129,777 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,074,041. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $233.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.13 and a 200 day moving average of $51.40. Cisco Systems has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $60.23.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.78 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. Cisco Systems’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 68.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total transaction of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at $45,059,857.14. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 58,188 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $3,345,228.12. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 219,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,596,059. The trade was a 20.98 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CSCO. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Cisco Systems by 10.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,402,432,000 after acquiring an additional 5,885,879 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 327.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,819,000 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $362,907,000 after buying an additional 5,223,800 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 22.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,254,739,000 after buying an additional 4,843,146 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 5,231.5% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 4,935,107 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $262,646,000 after buying an additional 4,842,542 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 79.6% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 8,971,494 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $477,463,000 after buying an additional 3,975,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.94.

About Cisco Systems

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.