How Are The Shorts Trading Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)?

In today’s market place, there are many metrics for Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) investors to pay attention to, but it’s important to monitor a company’s short interest. Some pieces of data we can use are: (a) the fraction of a company’s tradable shares that short sellers are currently short selling, plus (b) the change in short selling activity.

Heightened short selling usually indicates what it implies: investors have turned less bullish on the stock. Short selling that’s too high, however, may have a positive effect on stock price, as the shorts may be forced to cover their positions.

Within Insider Monkey, it is not a secret that we pay attention to hedgies’ interest, but it is also crucial to combine this data with aggregate short data. In certain instances, mega- players might share that they’re bearish on a certain stock, but it is not an SEC requirement. Nevertheless, some retail players might wish to stay away from highly shorted companies with elevated hedgie interest, while others might want short-squeeze opportunities. For those looking for a proven piggybacking strategy, discover the details of our premium strategy.

Let us take a gander at the key data surrounding Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO).

Looking at the newest FINRA short interest data, which is released twice a month, we can realize that Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has a short interest of 1.00% of float. This is a slight drop from the prior filing. With a total float of 5.34B shares, this reveals a short ratio of 1.40.

It’s also important to monitor hedge fund holdings via their 13F filings. According to our data, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management had the most valuable position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), worth close to $1.0965 billion, accounting for 5.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The 2nd biggest stake is held by First Eagle Investment Management, managed by Jean-Marie Eveillard, which held a $880.6 million position; the fund has 2.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC and Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management.

Also, bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last six-month time frame, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out activity in other stocks similar to Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO). These stocks are Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ:FNSR), Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RVBD), Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW), and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). All of these stocks are in the networking & communication devices industry and their market caps resemble CSCO’s market cap.

These figures–short sale information, hedge fund data and insider sentiment–are what every reader should pay attention to. Though it’s hard to formulate a discernable strategy from short selling filings, the latter two provide lots of market beating opportunities if you know where to look.