Cisco Systems, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 14th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the network equipment provider on Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd.

Cisco Systems has raised its dividend by an average of 2.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cisco Systems has a payout ratio of 44.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Cisco Systems to earn $3.14 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 51.0%.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ CSCO opened at $53.22 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $49.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Cisco Systems has a 52 week low of $44.50 and a 52 week high of $54.58. The company has a market capitalization of $214.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.83.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $13.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.53 billion. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 27.83% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cisco Systems will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total transaction of $1,342,221.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,794,278.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Cisco Systems news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 8,270 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $416,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,821,929.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 27,143 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.45, for a total value of $1,342,221.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 683,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,794,278.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 70,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,509,049. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSCO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Cisco Systems from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Cisco Systems to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Cisco Systems from $50.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

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.