Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Short Interest Up 5.5% in March

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of 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. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 19,820,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction 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 approximately $16,424,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 3,002 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.01, for a total transaction of $150,130.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,559 shares in the company, valued at $9,579,865.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 13,942 shares of the company’s 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 owns 328,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,424,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 19,441 shares of company stock worth $972,080. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 4,061,022 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Cisco Systems by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 61,788,267 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,943,593,000 after acquiring an additional 9,160,347 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems by 112,307.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,519,500 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,835,509,000 after purchasing an additional 59,466,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,102,221 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,069,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,790,717 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Cisco Systems Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of CSCO traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $47.92. The stock had a trading volume of 14,229,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,646,592. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The business’s fifty day moving average is $49.22 and its 200 day moving average is $50.37. Cisco Systems has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.19. The firm has a market cap of $194.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 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 for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $12.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSCO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday. Melius cut Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Melius Research reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, February 15th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.03.

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.