Cisco rewards investors

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC. $49 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol CSCO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 4.2 billion; Market cap: $205.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.2; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cisco.com) makes hardware and software to link computer networks. Cisco raised your quarterly dividend by 2.7% with the April 2022 payment. Investors now receive $0.38 a share instead of $0.37. The new annual rate of $1.52 yields 3.1%. Moreover, Cisco has added $15 billion to its share repurchase authorization. It can now buy back up to $18 billion of its shares, which is equal to 8% of its market cap. The company’s earnings will likely improve 7% in the fiscal year ending July 31, 2022, to $3.44 a share. The stock trades at 14.2 times that forecast. That’s a particularly attractive multiple as the company spends a high 13% of its revenue on research. Cisco Systems is a buy. buy…