Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Increases Dividend to $0.41 Per Share

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.41 per share by the network equipment provider on Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a 2.5% increase from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Cisco Systems has raised its dividend by an average of 2.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cisco Systems has a payout ratio of 41.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Cisco Systems to earn $3.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.1%.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

CSCO stock opened at $61.71 on Tuesday. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $66.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $245.50 billion, a PE ratio of 26.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cisco Systems

In related news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 2,065 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.70, for a total value of $125,345.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 191,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,604,868.80. The trade was a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 736,120 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,413,489.20. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,547 shares of company stock valued at $4,275,553. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cisco Systems

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Cisco Systems stock. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 37.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,156 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,474 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 73.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.