NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 17:34 ET — After-hours
- Cisco shares closed down 0.49% and were little changed after hours.
- A tech-led drift lower and Fed minutes kept risk appetite in check into year-end.
- Traders are watching Cisco’s January dividend date and its next earnings update in February.
Cisco Systems’ shares closed down 0.49% on Tuesday and edged up slightly in after-hours trading, tracking a muted late-December tape for U.S. technology stocks.
The timing matters. With only a handful of sessions left in 2025, thin liquidity can amplify moves in large-cap names, and investors are rebalancing portfolios ahead of early-January data and policy events.
Cisco sits near the center of that recalibration because investors treat it as a read-through on enterprise IT budgets and the networking buildout tied to artificial intelligence workloads.
Cisco closed at $77.41 and traded as high as $77.81 and as low as $77.17 in the regular session. After-hours trading — which occurs after the regular U.S. market closes at 4 p.m. ET — had the stock at $77.43, up about 0.03%, and volume finished below its three-month average, according to market data. Investing.com+1
U.S. stocks ended slightly lower in choppy trade on Tuesday, with declines in technology and financial shares offsetting gains elsewhere, Reuters reported. “It’s just a healthy rebalancing of allocations,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, pointing to repositioning into 2026 as valuations diverge; the report also noted investors were digesting Federal Reserve minutes and looking ahead to the central bank’s next meeting on Jan. 27-28. Reuters
Networking and infrastructure peers also slipped, adding to the cautious tone around the group. Arista Networks was down about 1.3%, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell about 1.0% in late trading, according to market data.
Cisco’s latest corporate messaging has kept the AI infrastructure theme front and center. In a company blog post on Monday, Cisco said “neocloud” providers — smaller, AI-focused cloud firms — are emerging alongside hyperscalers to meet demand for specialized AI computing and networking, and it cited research projecting data-center equipment spending could reach as much as $4.7 trillion over 2025-2030.
For income-focused holders, the next near-term calendar item is Cisco’s dividend. The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share payable on Jan. 21, 2026, to shareholders of record as of Jan. 2, it said in its most recent earnings release.
The next fundamental catalyst is Cisco’s February update. On its last earnings call, Cisco said its next quarterly results call is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2026, when investors will be looking for signs that AI-related demand is translating into orders and revenue, and for any change in tone on enterprise spending as budgets reset for 2026.
Technically, Tuesday’s session kept the stock pinned around the $77 level, with the day’s low near $77. Traders often treat that kind of intraday floor as a near-term support marker into the next session.
Absent a fresh company-specific headline, Cisco’s near-term direction is likely to keep following broader tech positioning and rate expectations — especially in a holiday-thin market where small shifts in sentiment can move large-cap stocks quickly.
