Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Declares $0.40 Quarterly Dividend

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the network equipment provider on Wednesday, July 24th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th.

Cisco Systems has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cisco Systems has a dividend payout ratio of 45.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Cisco Systems to earn $2.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.2%.

Cisco Systems Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSCO opened at $47.09 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.95 and a 12 month high of $58.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.72 billion, a PE ratio of 15.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.85.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The network equipment provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 30.82% and a net margin of 21.88%. The firm had revenue of $12.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 26,331 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total transaction of $1,213,859.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 725,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,439,234.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,378 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total transaction of $155,016.42. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 52,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,430,013.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 26,331 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total transaction of $1,213,859.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 725,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,439,234.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,106 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,923 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on CSCO shares. Bank of America raised Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cisco Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. Citigroup began coverage on Cisco Systems in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.47.

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.