Cisco Systems Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 90,628 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 62% compared to the typical volume of 56,052 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Oliver Tuszik sold 17,526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.95, for a total value of $1,190,891.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 198,855 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,512,197.25. The trade was a 8.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 30,557 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.63, for a total transaction of $2,036,012.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 639,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,576,570. This represents a 4.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 82,965 shares of company stock worth $5,559,996. 0.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bare Financial Services Inc increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 531.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 366 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 89.4% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 409 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Pandora Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Nova Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cisco Systems in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 1.9%

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $70.33 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $68.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.75. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $52.11 and a 12 month high of $72.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $278.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.97.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.01. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 18.45% and a return on equity of 27.06%. The firm had revenue of $14.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.63 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Cisco Systems has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.970-0.990 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 4.000-4.060 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $87.00 price target on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.53.

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.