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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) saw a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 46,710,000 shares, a growth of 5.5% from the March 15th total of 44,280,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 19,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, January 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.03.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $697,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 328,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 2,497 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,906,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cisco Systems

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 184,879,450 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $9,664,544,000 after acquiring an additional 4,061,022 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 73,439,747 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,672,445,000 after acquiring an additional 6,345,954 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Cisco Systems by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,943,593,000 after acquiring an additional 9,160,347 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $3,069,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,790,717 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $47.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.32. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.04 billion, a PE 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 quarterly earnings data 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. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 33.01% and a net margin of 23.49%. The business had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. Cisco Systems’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

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.