NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 14:34 ET — Regular session
- Cisco shares were up about 0.1% near $77.46, while broad U.S. equity benchmarks edged lower.
- Trading stayed light into the New Year holiday as investors wrapped up the final session of 2025.
- Focus shifts to Cisco’s Jan. 2 dividend record date and its next quarterly update in February.
Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) shares were up about 0.1% at $77.46 on Wednesday afternoon, after trading between $77.05 and $77.81. About 6.0 million shares had changed hands, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 tracking ETFs were down roughly 0.2% to 0.3%.
The muted move came on the final trading day of 2025, with liquidity fading ahead of the New Year holiday. “I do not expect the last few days will have so much bearing on next year,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity. 1
Markets also digested minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, released Tuesday, that showed officials split over the rate outlook for 2026 after a quarter-point cut. Tech shares often react to rate expectations because higher borrowing costs can weigh on valuations and corporate spending plans. 2
Other networking and cybersecurity names were softer, with Arista Networks down about 0.3%, Palo Alto Networks off roughly 0.7% and Fortinet down about 0.5%. Nvidia was up about 0.3%, underscoring how AI-linked stocks continued to drive selective buying even as the broader tech tape cooled.
Cisco last updated investors in November, when it lifted its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast to $60.2 billion to $61.0 billion and raised its annual adjusted profit outlook, citing AI-driven demand for networking equipment. “Adjusted” results exclude certain items such as one-time charges to show underlying operating performance. 3
The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, payable on Jan. 21. Shareholders of record as of Jan. 2 qualify for the payout, Cisco said. 4
For investors, Cisco is a read-through on whether AI spending is moving beyond chips into the infrastructure that carries and secures data. That includes switches and routers — the hardware that directs traffic inside corporate and cloud networks — along with security tools.
The next major catalyst is Cisco’s next quarterly report, expected on Feb. 11, according to Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar. Investors will be watching order momentum, customer demand signals and any changes to full-year guidance. 5
At Wednesday’s price, Cisco’s annualized dividend payout of $1.64 implies a yield of about 2.1%, which can appeal to income-focused buyers when growth stocks wobble. That support tends to matter more when markets are parsing the Fed’s next move.
Attention also turns to early-January U.S. economic releases and the start of earnings season for clues on 2026 corporate IT budgets. Networking vendors can benefit if spending broadens from AI pilots to full-scale deployments across data centers and office networks.
Cisco’s narrow intraday range signaled a market waiting for fresh company-specific direction rather than repricing the stock aggressively into the year-end close. With Wall Street shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day, trading desks will look for volume and new catalysts to return quickly in January.
