Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has finally reported earnings, and the company is including more dividend and buyback news with earnings growth. The report is also far less cautious than many of the tech bears had been expecting. With shares having closed down 0.6% at $22.51 ahead of earnings, what stands out now is that Cisco shares were down 16.5% from its dividend-adjusted share price of $26.95 as recently as the end of 2015.
Earnings were reported as $0.57 non-GAAP and revenue rose 2% to $11.8 billion. Thomson Reuters had estimates at $0.54 in non-GAAP EPS and $11.76 billion in revenue.
Cisco offered guidance ahead as well. Its revenue growth is now projected to be 1% to 4% year over year (normalized to exclude SP Video CPE Business for the third quarter of 2015). It sees non-GAAP earnings per share in a range of $0.54 to $0.56 versus a $0.55 estimate.
Cisco declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, a 24% or increase over the previous quarter’s dividend. Its board of directors has also approved a $15 billion increase to the authorization of the stock repurchase program. Keep in mind that Cisco is a serial buyback player — Cisco’s board had previously authorized up to $97 billion in stock repurchases and its remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program, including the additional authorization, is approximately $16.9 billion.
As of January 23, 2016, Cisco said that it has repurchased and retired 4.5 billion shares of Cisco common shares at an average price of $20.97 per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $95.1 billion since the inception.
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