CSCO

Earnings Insight – Cisco

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Image Source: Cisco Let’s cover some ground on Cisco’s (CSCO) calendar third-quarter report, its first quarter of fiscal 2017. By Brian Nelson, CFA What management said: “We had a good quarter despite a challenging global business environment and we performed well in our priority areas,” said Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco. “We are leading our customers in their digital transition by providing them with highly secure, automated, and intelligent solutions in the ways they want to consume them. Our innovation pipeline is robust and we are well positioned for the future.” “We executed well in Q1 delivering profitable growth, and saw strong adoption of our subscription-based and software offerings as we transition our business to a more recurring revenue model,” said … Read more

Video: An Overview of Our 16-page Stock Research Reports

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Understanding the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Designation

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“Among the countless finance degrees around the world, the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification has become the gold standard.” – Financial Times, 13 August 2010 “[The] qualification is roughly equivalent to a specialized postgraduate finance degree, including a mixture of economics, ethics, law, and accountancy… Whereas there are tens of thousands of finance degrees available around the world, ranging from the excellent to the worthless, there is only one CFA, managed and examined by an American association of financial professionals, the CFA Institute.” – the Economist From the CFA Institute: “The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter is an investment credential that, for more than 60 years, has been the global standard for embodying the integrity, dedication, and advanced skills needed to … Read more

Cisco’s Awesome Dividend Growth Potential

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Image Source: BY-YOUR-⌘ By Kris Rosemann We hope you are having a great start to the week! We wanted to bring your attention to one of the holdings that we include in the portfolios of the Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter, Cisco (CSCO). The newsletter portfolios are one of the best ways to measure Valuentum’s asset allocation and stock-selection performance, and they are released on the 1st of the month (Dividend Growth Newsletter) and the 15th of the month (Best Ideas Newsletter), respectively. If you ever want to view the archives, they are located in the left column of the website, “View Current and Archived Newsletters.” Both of the newsletter portfolios surface ideas that we think fit well within … Read more

Flash: Cisco Pops… Shares +6% After-Hours Trading

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Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Cisco (CSCO) is popping nicely in after-hours trading May 18 after a solid fiscal third-quarter report that showed revenue growth of 3% on a year-over-year basis thanks to strength in Security (+17%), Collaboration (+10%) and SP Video (18%), and GAAP earnings per share of $0.46 (non-GAAP came in at $0.57, up 6% during the period). Service revenue jumped 11% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis, while deferred revenue advanced 8% in total. We’re reiterating our $37 per share fair value estimate of Cisco at this time, and we don’t expect its solid 2.6 Dividend Cushion ratio to change materially as a result of the incremental quarterly information. Shares yield ~4%. … Read more

Treasury Erects Iron Tax Curtain

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Image Description/Source: Berlin Wall, 1963; Roger “If history is any guide, it would seem that tax lawmakers may want to think about the current political agenda’s similarities with respect to that of a “new” Berlin Wall–not one built of barbed wire but of prohibitive, restrictive tax laws–and whether such measures make sense in light of the events of the late 1980s.” – Valuentum Securities Late Monday April 4, the US Department of the Treasury launched an all-out attack on companies pursuing tax inversion deals and a technique called earnings stripping, the latter used as a means to minimize taxes after an inversion. Stating in no uncertain terms that such companies have only been successful due to the “benefits of being based … Read more

Alerts! Adding to PCLN & CSCO on Strength; Initiating KMI

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Good morning. We were met February 17 with some fantastic news from Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding Priceline (PCLN), which is trading up over 10% at the time of this writing, to $1,230 per share, following a fourth-quarter earnings beat, where it exceeded the bottom line consensus estimate by more than $0.80 per share. Though recent unfortunate news regarding terrorist activity across the globe has given pause to sentiment with respect to travel-oriented stocks, the collapse in crude oil prices and distillates (jet fuel) may be stimulating incremental demand in light of the reduced cost of vacationing. We’ll be roughly doubling our position in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio at the prevailing price, to a 3.5% weighting. Priceline’s bookings growth … Read more

Your Hard-Earned Money

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By Brian Nelson, CFA It was Thursday afternoon, February 11, crude oil prices just hit a 13-year low, and the S&P 500 (SPY) was about to break below key technical support. Then, just as the markets were to fall further, rumors again emerged that OPEC may be scheduling a meeting to curb crude oil output, driving crude oil prices from the depths and the market higher off technical support. A barrel of crude oil continues to trade below the $30 mark, but it was quite the “save.” From where we stand, the market hasn’t been this fragile than at any time during the past decade or so, including during much of the Financial Crisis. Optimists may be whistling past the … Read more

More Market Weakness: We Haven’t Hit Bottom Yet

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Global equity markets are falling yet again February 11, in part due to cautious comments from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen about the health of the global economy and the legality/efficaciousness of negative interest rates, “Dividend Growth ‘Bubble’ To Continue But For How Long? (Feb 2016).” Market onlookers continue to fear that the Fed has nothing left to give, “out of ammunition,” with the tank of accommodative policy empty, and it might just be. To us, however, the news flow is more of the same. The world continues to be awash in crude oil (USO), and many are now starting to think that what was once mostly an oversupply problem is now being compounded by a demand problem as … Read more

Cisco Hikes Payout 24%! Realty Income’s Dividend Coverage Solid

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By Kris Rosemann Two resilient dividend payers that reside in the newsletter portfolios, Cisco (CSCO) and Realty Income (O), reported quarterly results February 10. We were mighty pleased. Networking giant Cisco, a ~1.5% weighting in both the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, is a free-cash-flow generating machine. Concurrent with its fiscal second-quarter release, the company announced a remarkable 24% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.26 per share (good now for a 4.5% forward yield), a pace of growth roughly on par with its impressive ~27% increase in its free cash flow through the first six months of fiscal year 2016. Cisco also added $15 billion to its buyback program, and management remains committed to returning … Read more