NEW YORK, May 17, 2026, 14:07 (EDT)
Cisco Systems heads into the week with shares at $118.21 after its latest close. The stock jumped 2.3% on Friday, bucking a weaker tech tape, as a wave of earnings optimism put new AI focus on the company. Cisco has become one of Wall Street’s firmer bets in AI, rewriting its playbook beyond traditional networking.
Cisco jumped about 22% in a week, with shares moving from $96.57 at the May 8 close to $118.21 by May 15, according to historical data. The price move was not small. Now investors have to figure out if Monday is just a reset or another squeeze after last week’s strong print.
U.S. cash trading didn’t open on Sunday. Nasdaq’s normal hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday, so the next trading test will be at Monday’s open.
Cisco posted Q3 revenue of $15.8 billion, up 12% on the year, with non-GAAP EPS at $1.06. Non-GAAP strips out some expenses. The company boosted its fiscal 2026 revenue target to between $62.8 billion and $63.0 billion. Orders for AI infrastructure from hyperscalers reached $5.3 billion so far this year. Cisco now expects $9 billion in AI orders for the fiscal year, up from a forecast of $5 billion.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said the company posted “record quarterly revenue” and “very strong, broad-based demand.” CFO Mark Patterson said Cisco turned in “double-digit growth on both the top and bottom lines” and hit a record for non-GAAP operating income. Cisco Investor Relations
Cisco jumped 17% to an all-time high on Thursday, Reuters said, after a strong market reaction. The move puts the stock on pace for its biggest single-day rise in over 20 years and could boost its market cap by around $70 billion.
Cisco plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs as it moves more spending into AI, silicon, optics and security, but the cuts didn’t slow investor interest. “It’s about more than just chips,” Direxion’s Ryan Lee told Reuters, pointing to gains that tracked growing hyperscaler capex in data centers and related assets. Chief financial officer Patterson said Cisco could see at least $6 billion in AI hyperscale sales in fiscal 2027. Reuters
Cisco finished out on top Friday, but the share battle with peers is still open. Arista Networks lost 3.9% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise slid 3.0% that session, both playing in the same AI infrastructure trade. The competitive read-through came in mixed for the group.
Cisco management won’t have much of a break as the rally rolls on. The company is set to join J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston on Monday and Tuesday. Cisco lists Robbins, Patterson and investor relations staff as its reps.
But the risk is also clear. After jumping 22% in a week, there is less slack if AI demand doesn’t turn into real revenue, if heavy spending on hardware squeezes margins, or if restructuring takes focus away from sales. The stock now tracks more closely with the budgets of a few big cloud customers.
Cisco is shifting the debate on the stock. Instead of just asking if enterprise networking is back, the focus is on whether Cisco can turn all these AI data-center orders into steady business. That’s the main question now before the week’s rally loses momentum with investors.
