Cisco deepens its expertise

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC. $31 (Nasdaq symbol CSCO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 5.0 billion; Market cap: $155.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cisco. com) continues to face strong competition from lower-cost, generic computer routers and switches. In response, the company has started to shift its focus to faster-growing markets such as security systems and software. As part of that strategy, Cisco has agreed to acquire privately held Springpath Inc. Based in California, that firm specializes in hyperconvergence software, which speeds up the transfer of data across multiple servers. Cisco will pay $320 million for Springpath when it completes the purchase later this year. To put that amount in context, the company earned $3.1 billion for the 2017 fourth quarter, ended July 29, 2017. That’s down 3.4% from $3.2 billion a year earlier. During the quarter, the company spent $1.2 billion on share repurchases; as a result, earnings per share declined at a slower…