Cisco shares' highs and lows in Chambers' 20 years as CEO

(Reuters) - During John Chambers' 20-year reign at Cisco Systems Inc , the network equipment maker's shares rose more than 1,470 percent and its annual revenue grew from $1.2 billion to $47 billion.

However, Cisco shares have lagged every year for the past six years. They now trade about 65 percent below their record with the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> just 2 percent shy of its 2000 peak.

Chambers will step down as chief executive officer in July and will be succeeded by company veteran Chuck Robbins, the company announced on Monday.

The 1,471 percent rise in Cisco stock during Chambers' tenure compares with 563 percent for the Nasdaq in the same time span.

 

It also beat the 1,211 percent increase for Microsoft Corp and 671 percent for Intel Corp , two of its three peers known as the "four horsemen of the Nasdaq." One of those "horsemen," Dell Computer, is no longer listed.

In 2011, Cisco became the last of the "horsemen" to begin paying a dividend; Microsoft started regular payouts in 2003 and Intel launched them in 1993.

Cisco achieved a maximum market cap of about $619 billion on March 27, 2000 based on the company's diluted share count at the time, when its stock hit its all-time high of $82. The record was notched during the dot.com boom when investors could not get enough of telecom and technology stocks.

On Monday, Cisco's market value of $148.7 billion made it the eighth biggest on the Nasdaq. At the company's peak in 2000 it was Nasdaq's second biggest company behind Microsoft.

Cisco outperformed Nasdaq in the first six years of Chambers' term as CEO, from 1995 through 2000. Since then the stock has outperformed in six years but lagged for eight.

On Oct. 8, 2002 the company's shares hit $8.12, their lowest point since the peak.

Cisco reported annual revenue of $47.1 billion for fiscal year 2014.

(Reporting by Daniel Burns and Sinead Carew; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)