Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, February 14, 2025

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $64.87, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, is a top pick for 2025. Through their shares, investors tap a global producer of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. With the April 2025 payment, Cisco will raise your quarterly dividend by 2.5%. Investors receive $0.41 a share instead of $0.40. The new annual rate of $1.64 yields a solid 2.5%. The company also added $15 billion to its share repurchase authorization. It can now buy back up to $17 billion of its shares. There are no time limits for those repurchases. In March 2024, Cisco completed its acquisition of Splunk Inc. (Nasdaq symbol SPLK) for $28 billion. The firm makes software that lets organizations analyze their data in real time. The purchase will enhance Cisco’s current cybersecurity software business. Their combined expertise in AI will also help clients better anticipate and prevent cyberattacks. That purchase helped lift the company’s revenue in its fiscal 2025 second quarter, ended January 25, 2025, by 9.4%, to…