Cisco and Acacia finally came to terms on acquisition agreement last week
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) made waves in the software and telecommunications equipment industry last week. Cisco announced a jaw-dropping amendment to its original merger agreement, which would complete Cisco’s acquisition of Acacia Communications (ACIA) at a rate of $115 per share, or for approximately $4.5 billion. This new acquisition value is a significant 73% increase from the originally agreed upon price of $2.6 billion.
Despite the big move, Cisco stock hasn't had much big movement on the charts recently. The shares are down 7.3% in the last 12 months, with short-term support emerging at the $44 level, which is the site of CSCO's post-earnings bear gap levels from mid-August.
Meanwhile, options traders have been picking up CSCO calls over puts at a rapid-fire rate. On the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 4.15 indicates more than four Cisco calls have been bought to open for every put in the past two weeks. This ratio registers in the 85th percentile of its annual range, pointing to a much healthier-than-usual appetite for bullish bets over bearish of late.
Now is an opportune time to strike on CSCO near-term options. The stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 29% is at the 15th percentile of its annual range, suggesting short-term options are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations for the underperformer.
Overall, as a potential investment, CSCO's price-earnings ratio of 18.39 makes the stock one of the most attractive value plays amongst the huge market-cap companies. In addition, the company has a nice dividend yield of 3.17% and a forward dividend of 1.44.