Diab0lic's comment is true about future dividends - but my point is that comparing today's share price to the share price in 2000 and implying they haven't done

Diab0lic's comment is true about future dividends - but my point is that comparing today's share price to the share price in 2000 and implying they haven't done much misses the fact that they've paid out something like $54 billion in dividends since then. This will be wrong but true enough to make my point; With a market cap today of ~$215 billion, had CSCO not paid out dividends, their market cap would be $215 billion that represents current cash and the discounted value of future cash + the $54 billion that would also be in cash -- for a total of $269 billion. That's enough to add ~$15 to their share price.