Dividend Increase | Cisco Systems (CSCO)

Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks Cisco for the dividend increase!

There's an old Chinese proverb that says "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now".  The reason for this is that it takes time for a tree to grow and prosper and for you to start reaping its benefits.  Dividend growth investing is much the same way.  It takes consistent saving and investing as well as time and patience to let the power of dividend growth take hold.

That's why one of my favorite things is when one of the companies I own decides to pay out more in dividends.  You mean I get a pay raise just for owning a small piece of a company?  Not going and doing R&D for new products or technology.  Not selling any products.  Not managing any employees or inventory.  Not making sales calls.  All I had to do was have the foresight to invest some of my savings in excellent companies.  

On February 12th the Board of Directors at Cisco Systems (CSCO) approved an increase to the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $0.35 up to $0.36.  That's a decent 2.9% increase.  Shares currently yield 3.04% based on the new annualized payout.  Cisco is a Dividend Contender with 10 consecutive years of dividend growth.

The newly increased dividend will be payable on April 22nd to shareholders of record as of April 3rd.

Since I own 60.987 shares of Cisco in my FI Portfolio, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $2.44.  This is the 1st dividend increase I've received from Cisco since initiating a position in February 2019.  I also own 104.281 shares of Cisco in my Rollover IRA and this raise increased my forward dividends for htat portfolio by $4.17.

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Cisco's dividend growth streak isn't that long; however, the pace of growth has been very quick.  Unfortunately, this latest increase was by far the slowest raise in Cisco's history.

The 1-, 3- and 5-year rolling dividend growth rates since 2011 can be found in the following chart.  

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

For dividend yield theory I consider the fair value range to be the forward dividend yield +/- 10% compared to the 5 year moving average, the under/over value area to be to between 10%-20% deviation from the average and significant over/under value are greater than a 20% deviation from the average.

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Cisco's 5-year average forward dividend yield is 3.15% which corresponds to a share price of $45.71 based on the new annualized payout.  

I consider the fair value range based on dividend yield theory to be the 5-year moving average yield +/- 10%.  That gives a fair value range of $42 - $51.  


  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $6.35 with me doing nothing.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my FI Portfolio's current yield of 2.84% this raise is like I invested an extra $86 in capital.  Except that I didn't!  One of the companies I own just decided to send more cash my way.  

That's how you can eventually reach the crossover point where your dividends received exceed your expenses.  That's DIVIDEND GROWTH INVESTING AT WORK!  The beauty of the dividend growth investing strategy is that you build up your dividends through fresh capital investment as well dividend increases from the companies you own.

I've now received 8 raises from 8 of the 54 companies in my FI Portfolio increasing my forward-12 month dividends by $64.71.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $7,991.06.  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $100.95 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $8,092.01.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $656.65.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends increased to $2,395.36.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $11,144.02 in dividends over the next year.

I've also started compiling dividend data on many of the companies that I own or would like to own.  Cisco's can be found here which includes the dividend history (as far back as I can find without spending hours hunting it down), rolling dividend growth rates and dividend yield theory.  To see other companies that I've already gathered the data on you can check out the Dividend Companies page.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you own shares of Cisco?  How do you feel about the marked slow down in Cisco's dividend growth?

Please share your thoughts below.