Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) Stock Price & How to Invest

Cisco Systems, founded in 1984 by Stanford University computer scientists and headquartered in San Jose, California, designs, develops, and sells technologies that power, secure, and draw insights from the internet across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. The company generates revenue across four main product categories: Networking (switches, routers, wireless, and increasingly AI-optimized silicon and infrastructure), Security (firewall, identity, and endpoint products plus the acquired Splunk platform for observability and threat detection), Collaboration (Webex-based unified communications and video), and Observability (application performance and IT operations monitoring). Services revenue, which includes software subscriptions and technical support, accounts for a material and growing share of the overall mix, giving the company a recurring-revenue cushion alongside its hardware cycles.

Cisco went public in 1990 and became one of the most valuable companies in the world during the dot-com era before a prolonged restructuring phase. Under Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins, who has led the company since 2015, Cisco has steadily shifted toward software and subscription models and completed its largest acquisition ever, the approximately $28 billion purchase of Splunk, which closed in March 2024. Splunk adds market-leading data platform and security information and event management capabilities. The Splunk integration remains a central strategic and financial narrative for the company in fiscal year 2027, which began in late July 2026.

The fiscal 2026 numbers showed the AI cycle reaching reported results. Revenue rose from about $56.7 billion in fiscal 2025 to about $63.3 billion, and net income from about $10.5 billion to about $13.3 billion. Quarterly revenue stepped up each period, from about $14.9 billion in the quarter ended July 2025 to about $17.3 billion in the quarter ended July 2026, when non-GAAP EPS of $1.22 came in above the $1.17 consensus. As of October 16, 2026 the shares closed near $108, up about 42% year to date and about 56% over one year, though roughly 17% below the 52-week high near $130. Cisco employs about 82,400 people.

Cisco's trailing P/E, near 32x in October 2026, remains materially above its 3- and 5-year historical averages, meaning the stock reflects optimistic assumptions about AI-driven growth that require sustained execution to justify. Splunk's ongoing shift from on-premises licenses to cloud subscriptions creates a near-term reported-revenue drag that complicates year-over-year comparisons. Gross margins have shown some compression, with GAAP total gross margin in Q3 FY2026 declining to 63.6% from 65.6% in the same quarter a year earlier, partly driven by memory cost increases and product mix; the trailing twelve-month gross margin stood near 64.5% in October 2026. The shares have also cooled since the summer, down about 3.7% over three months, so the November 12, 2026 report (consensus EPS of about $1.32 on revenue near $18.1 billion) is the next test of whether growth keeps pace with expectations. Finally, Cisco faces aggressive competition in high-speed switching from Arista Networks, in cybersecurity from a wide field of dedicated vendors, and broader macro sensitivity if enterprise IT budgets tighten.

25 analysts publish price targets on CSCO, averaging $136.16 against a $107.39 price as of October 2026, or +26.8%. The published targets run from $110.00 to $170.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 19 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 8 raises and 2 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full CSCO forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Cisco Systems, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. AI Networking Demand Surge. Hyperscalers and enterprises are spending heavily on AI infrastructure, and Cisco's networking segment grew 25% year over year in Q3 FY2026. The most optimistic published target, $170.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Cisco's trailing P/E, near 32x in October 2026, remains materially above its 3- and 5-year historical averages, meaning the stock reflects optimistic assumptions about AI-driven growth that require sustained execution to justify. The most pessimistic target, $110.00, is roughly what CSCO is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on CSCO, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

No. Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) has not split its stock in the last 10 years. That is a statement about the window we check rather than about the company’s entire history, so an older split is possible. It also matters less than it once did: fractional shares mean a high price per share no longer keeps smaller investors out, which removed most of the practical reason to split.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Cisco Systems, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (FY2026, ended July 2026): ~$63.3 billion
• Revenue growth (Q4 FY2026, YoY): ~17.6%
• Margins (TTM gross / operating / net): ~64.5% / ~27.7% / ~21%
• Net income (TTM): ~$13.3 billion; non-GAAP EPS $1.22 in Q4 vs $1.17 consensus
• P/E (trailing / forward): ~32x / ~19x
• Dividend: $1.68 a year ($0.42 quarterly), yield ~1.5%
• Market capitalization: ~$426 billion at ~$108 (October 16, 2026)
• Next earnings: November 12, 2026; consensus EPS ~$1.32, revenue ~$18.1 billion

Cisco's trailing P/E has come down to roughly 32x from around 40x earlier in 2026, mostly because earnings grew into the price: trailing net income rose about 27% across fiscal 2026. The forward P/E near 19x leans on analyst estimates of about $5.15 in fiscal 2027 EPS, still above the 3-year average of around 21-22x on a trailing basis but a narrower premium. Gross margin, near 64.5% on a trailing basis, remains the metric to watch as memory costs and product mix evolve.

If you want CSCO exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

These are the investment theses CSCO naturally fits into. Each links to a full theme guide listing every other stock that belongs and the ETFs commonly used as a passive proxy.

Other names that sit close to CSCO: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get CSCO exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (MTUM, VLUE, VTV), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so CSCO sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where CSCO fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Cisco today is best understood as a networking-infrastructure-plus-security platform company riding the AI buildout cycle, with fiscal 2026 revenue up about 12% to roughly $63.3 billion, a fourth quarter that grew about 17.6%, and earnings per share that beat consensus in each of the last four quarters. If you believe enterprise and hyperscaler spending on AI networking, cybersecurity, and observability will sustain multi-year growth and that Cisco's scale gives it an enduring share-gain advantage, the question becomes sizing and overlap with other tech holdings, not timing. The risk is that the stock's trailing P/E near 32x (about 19x forward) after a roughly 56% one-year gain leaves little room for disappointment on Splunk integration, security portfolio recovery, or gross margin pressure from memory costs and product mix shift.

Whether CSCO is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is CSCO a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the CSCO stock forecast.

For income investors, whether CSCO pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does CSCO pay a dividend? And to weigh CSCO against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: CSCO vs AAPL and CSCO vs ADBE.