Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, November 22, 2019

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $44.85, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, is still a top pick for 2019. Through the stock, investors tap a global producer of hardware and software that links and manages 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 3.1%. Cisco reported better-than-expected results for the quarter ended October 26, 2019. However, its earnings outlook for the current quarter (ending January 31, 2020) fell short of the consensus estimate partly due to the U.S.-China trade dispute. Meantime, investors continue to benefit as more of the company’s 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 2020 first quarter, ended October 26, 2019, earnings rose 4.5%, to $3.61 billion from $3.45 billion a year earlier. Cisco spent $768 million on share repurchases…