Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Short Interest Down 28.8% in May

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 40,970,000 shares, a drop of 28.8% from the May 15th total of 57,510,000 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 22,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSCO shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cisco Systems from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. DZ Bank upgraded Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 762 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.07, for a total value of $48,821.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,366,553.59. This trade represents a 2.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 9,643 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.50, for a total value of $612,330.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 181,186 shares in the company, valued at $11,505,311. This represents a 5.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 72,931 shares of company stock valued at $4,671,930. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cisco Systems

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,297,905,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 77,216,513 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,571,218,000 after buying an additional 13,285,052 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 37.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 46,973,293 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,898,722,000 after buying an additional 12,775,066 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at approximately $750,495,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,722,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $65.51 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $60.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $259.42 billion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.88. Cisco Systems has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $66.50.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 16.96% and a return on equity of 26.08%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.94%.

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.