SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 15, 2012 - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today detailed its capital allocation strategy, which includes a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per common share, an increase of 75%.
"Cisco has the financial strength and flexibility to effectively invest in our business, pursue strategic opportunities, such as acquisitions, as well as return a minimum of 50% of our free cash flow annually through dividends and share repurchases to our shareholders," said Frank Calderoni, EVP and Chief Financial Officer. "Our financial strength gives us the confidence to commit and execute against this strategy, in order to provide meaningful return to our shareholders."
"We are listening to our shareholders, and I'm pleased we are increasing our quarterly dividend for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 by 75% to $0.14 per share," concluded Calderoni.
The quarterly dividend was declared by Cisco's Board of Directors on August 14, 2012. The dividend will be paid on October 24, 2012 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on October 4, 2012. Cisco's previous quarterly dividend, of $0.08 per common share, was paid on July 25, 2012. Future dividends will be subject to Board approval.
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Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com
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This release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events (such as Cisco's financial strength and flexibility to effectively invest in its business, pursue strategic opportunities, as well as return a minimum of 50% of its free cash flow annually to our shareholders, and Cisco's ability to commit and execute against this strategy) that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including: business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, our customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; overall information technology spending; the growth and evolution of the Internet and levels of capital spending on Internet-based systems; variations in customer demand for products and services, including sales to the service provider market and other customer markets; the return on our investments in certain priorities, including our foundational priorities, and in certain geographical locations; the timing of orders and manufacturing and customer lead times; changes in customer order patterns or customer mix; insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; variability of component costs; variations in sales channels, product costs or mix of products sold; our ability to successfully acquire businesses and technologies and to successfully integrate and operate these acquired businesses and technologies; increased competition in our product and service markets, including the data center; dependence on the introduction and market acceptance of new product offerings and standards; rapid technological and market change; manufacturing and sourcing risks; product defects and returns; litigation involving patents, intellectual property, antitrust, shareholder and other matters, and governmental investigations; natural catastrophic events; a pandemic or epidemic; our ability to achieve the benefits anticipated from our investments in sales, engineering, service, marketing and manufacturing activities; our ability to recruit and retain key personnel; our ability to manage financial risk, and to manage expenses during economic downturns; risks related to the global nature of our operations, including our operations in emerging markets; currency fluctuations and other international factors; changes in provision for income taxes, including changes in tax laws and regulations or adverse outcomes resulting from examinations of our income tax returns; potential volatility in operating results; and other factors listed in Cisco's most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q filed on September 14, 2011 and May 23, 2012, respectively. Any projections in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco, which is subject to change, and Cisco will not necessarily update the information. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release.
