One of my favorite scenes from the brilliant Steve Martin film The Jerk was when the deranged sniper played by C. Emmett Walsh is firing at Martin’s character, the hapless gas station attendant Navin Johnson, yelling “Die milk face!” The sniper’s aim is poor and as the bullets whiz past him, Martin yells, “He hates these cans!” Having been a long-time bull on the seven-million-pound networking gorilla Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and for quite a while, I’ve felt a little like Navin Johnson where the market is the sniper and I’m running around yelling “It hates this stock!” What am… Read More
One of my favorite scenes from the brilliant Steve Martin film The Jerk was when the deranged sniper played by C. Emmett Walsh is firing at Martin’s character, the hapless gas station attendant Navin Johnson, yelling “Die milk face!” The sniper’s aim is poor and as the bullets whiz past him, Martin yells, “He hates these cans!” Having been a long-time bull on the seven-million-pound networking gorilla Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and for quite a while, I’ve felt a little like Navin Johnson where the market is the sniper and I’m running around yelling “It hates this stock!” What am I missing? Big Tech, Low Price On average, the company has grown earnings per share at an 11% annual rate over the last four years. The common dividend per share has grown at a 13% annual rate for the same time period. Total cash per share is a staggering $14.12, representing 45% of Cisco’s current share price. #-ad_banner-#Rationally, this is a stock investors looking for high quality, blue-chip brand names should own. But investors and markets are rarely, if ever, rational. The biggest concern the herd has is revenue weakness. For fiscal year 2017 (Cisco’s ends in… Read More