Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 on July 24th

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 given 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 3.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th.

Cisco Systems has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cisco Systems has a payout ratio of 45.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Performance

Shares of CSCO stock opened at $47.28 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $47.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.77. The company has a market cap of $190.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.92, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.85. Cisco Systems has a 12 month low of $44.95 and a 12 month high of $58.19.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $60.00 in a report on Monday, April 15th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Friday, April 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $52.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a report on Monday, June 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.47.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total value of $386,691.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,717,209.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Cisco Systems news, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 3,378 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.89, for a total value of $155,016.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 52,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,430,013.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 8,016 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.24, for a total transaction of $386,691.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 180,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,717,209.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,106 shares of company stock worth $1,908,923. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

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.