Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, May 15, 2020

Article Excerpt

CISCO SYSTEMS INC., $44.27, Nasdaq symbol CSCO, is a buy. Through the stock, investors tap a global producer of hardware and software that links and manages computer networks. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred strong demand for Cisco’s WebEx video conferencing and security software products as more people work from home. That helped offset lower hardware sales. The company expects sales of those products, which help businesses keep running during unexpected disruptions, to improve once the pandemic ends. In its fiscal 2020 third quarter, ended April 25, 2020, Cisco’s revenue declined 7.5%, to $11.98 billion from $12.96 billion a year earlier. Even so, that also beat the consensus forecast of $11.85 billion. Overall earnings in the quarter fell 2.5%, to $3.37 billion from $3.45 billion. The company spent $981 million on share repurchases; as a result, earnings per share gained 1.3%, to $0.79 from $0.78. Those figures exclude costs to integrate recent acquisitions and other unusual items. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus…