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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 46,710,000 shares, an increase of 5.5% from the March 15th total of 44,280,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 19,820,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.7 %

CSCO stock opened at $47.92 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $45.56 and a 1-year high of $58.19. The stock has a market cap of $194.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.87.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. Cisco Systems’s payout ratio is presently 48.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $124,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 1,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 636 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.