Topic: How To Invest

Please advise me of your views on Cisco Systems. Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Cisco Systems Inc., $18.79, symbol CSCO on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 5.8 billion; Market cap: $109.6 billion), is a leading maker of products that link and manage computer networks. These include routers, local-area network (LAN) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, dial-up access servers and software. Cisco’s IOS (Internet Operating System) software ties these products together, delivers network services (which interconnect and move information between networks) and enables programs to run on networks. Cisco gets about 46% of its revenue from overseas customers. In its third fiscal quarter, which ended April 25, 2009, Cisco’s revenue fell 16.6%, to $8.2 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, its earnings fell 24.1%, to $1.8 billion, or $0.30 a share, from $2.3 billion, or $0.38. The company bought back 77 million shares during the quarter, at a cost of $1.2 billion. The recession continues to hurt demand for Cisco’s products. To cope, the company plans to lower its expenses by $1 billion…