Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, February 15, 2019

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $49.43, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, is a leading maker of hardware and software for linking and managing computer networks. Starting with the April 2019 payment, Cisco will raise its quarterly dividend by 6.1%. Investors will then receive $0.35 a share instead of $0.33. The new annual rate of $1.40 yields 2.8%. Cisco continues to benefit as more of its corporate customers shift their computing platforms to the cloud (remote servers that users access over the Internet). That has spurred demand for its networking gear and security software. In its fiscal 2019 second quarter, ended January 26, 2019, Cisco’s earnings rose 4.7%, to $3.30 billion from $3.15 billion a year earlier. During the quarter, the company spent $5.0 billion on share repurchases; as a result, earnings per share jumped 19.0%, to $0.73 from $0.63, on fewer shares outstanding. Those figures exclude costs to integrate recent acquisitions, one-time charges related to the new U.S. tax laws and other unusual items. On that basis, the…