Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, August 16, 2019

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $46.96, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, is a leading maker of hardware and software for linking and managing computer networks. Starting with the April 2019 payment, Cisco raised its quarterly dividend by 6.1%. Investors now receive $0.35 a share instead of $0.33. The new annual rate of $1.40 yields 3.0%. The company reported better-than-expected results for its latest quarter. However, its earnings outlook for the current quarter fell short of the consensus estimate partly due to slowing sales in China (less than 3% of Cisco’s total revenue) as a result of the current trade dispute. That caused the stock to drop 10% this week. Meantime, Cisco continues to benefit as more of its corporate customers shift their computing platforms to the cloud (remote servers that users access over the Internet). That has spurred demand for its networking gear and security software. In its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, ended July 27, 2019, the company’s earnings rose 7.8%, to $3.59 billion from $3.33 billion a..