CSCO was our top performing holding in February, gaining nearly 11% for the month which accounts for the bulk of its 12% increased since we added it to our portfolio on December 21. The month of January was fairly quiet until the company announced its proposed acquisition of AppDynamics, and since then it has been on a roll.

CSCO released its second quarter earnings report on February 15, which beat on its earnings estimate while reflecting declining hardware sales. That’s why the company is aggressively expanding into other segments, and announced its intentions to continue to acquire other businesses to offset declining revenue.

Our target holding period for CSCO does not expire until May 21, so we are more than halfway to our target price in less than half the expected time. If we reach our target price before the next quarterly report due out the last week of our holding period, then I may close this position out early to eliminate the risk of an unpleasant surprise in that report.