As of this date, I hold 70 shares of stock in Cisco, the network gear giant. I have been accumulating these shares for about 2 and a half years. I bought my first Cisco shares in January of 2001, during my MBA finance class at Park University. One of our assignments was to chose a company to follow throughout the course of the semester, and give regular updates to the rest of the class on the company's financial events, conditions, etc. When I chose Cisco, after doing a little bit of research, I found out that the company had loads of cash and no long-term debt. This intrigued me, since most of the other companies I looked at were knee deep in debt. Because of the lack of debt, I thought that this seemed like a company that would be safe to own, even during a tech recession, when sales and profits were declining industry wide.

Yesterday Cisco announced its first quarter results. These results exceeded analysts expectations, and the share price jumped to 22.90, making my holdings worth approximately $1600. I haven't done an analysis of how much I have paid, on average, for these holdings, so I'm not sure if I have made a return on my investment or not, at this point. However, I continue to believe that this company is fundamentally sound, especially since it still has a large cash reserve with no debt. There is virtually no chance of this company going bankrupt. It should have plenty of flexibility to reinvent itself if market conditions dictate.

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