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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 56,750,000 shares, a drop of 9.1% from the November 15th total of 62,450,000 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,540,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSCO traded down $0.23 during trading on Friday, hitting $58.62. 14,129,777 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,074,041. Cisco Systems has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $60.23. The company has a market capitalization of $233.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $57.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced 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. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Cisco Systems's revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cisco Systems from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $59.94.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total value of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. This represents a 9.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 193,489,477 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $10,297,506,000 after buying an additional 3,241,682 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,630,469 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $5,075,320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,017 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 82,720,255 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,402,239,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,383 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Cisco Systems by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 70,317,061 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,340,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,853,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Cisco Systems by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,931,461 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $3,402,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,885,879 shares during 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.