Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.41

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.41 per share by the network equipment provider on Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Cisco Systems has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Cisco Systems has a dividend payout ratio of 40.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Cisco Systems to earn $3.17 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 50.5%.

Cisco Systems Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:CSCO opened at $62.53 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $249.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.31. Cisco Systems has a 1 year low of $44.50 and a 1 year high of $63.25.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 25.70%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cisco Systems will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cisco Systems from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Melius upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.94.

Cisco Systems announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $15.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network equipment provider to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thimaya K. Subaiya sold 21,230 shares of Cisco Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.07, for a total transaction of $1,211,596.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 213,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,203,506.38. The trade was a 9.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 783,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,059,857.14. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock valued at $20,349,721. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Cisco Systems

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.