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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 48,430,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the September 15th total of 52,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 18,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.0 %

CSCO traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $56.40. 18,280,320 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,188,703. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $56.58. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.73 and a 200 day moving average of $48.50. The firm has a market cap of $227.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 27.83%. The firm had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is currently 53.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CSCO shares. New Street Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $57.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.74.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $416,229.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at $6,821,929.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 1,328 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.92, for a total value of $64,965.76. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,910 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,957.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,529 shares of company stock worth $3,509,049. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,340,764,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853,598 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,593,944 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,261,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530,468 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 22.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,409,843 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $1,254,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,843,146 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the 1st quarter worth approximately $840,538,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,858,505 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $691,678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,357 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

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.