Cisco Systems (CSCO) Stock Price, News and Forecast Ahead of December 1, 2025 Market Open

Updated: November 30, 2025 – before U.S. markets reopen on Monday, December 1, 2025.

1. CSCO price snapshot before the December 1 open

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) heads into the new trading week trading just below record territory after a strong November driven by AI and networking demand.

Last regular close (Friday, November 28, 2025): around $76.94, up about 1.1% on the day. ^[1]
After-hours on November 28: CSCO traded near $77.05, modestly above the official close. ^[2]
Three‑month performance: roughly +13–14%, beating the Nasdaq Composite’s ~7% gain over the same period. ^[3]
Year‑to‑date and 52‑week performance: up about 29–30%, outperforming the S&P 500’s ~19–21% advance. ^[4]
Market cap: around $300–305 billion, placing Cisco firmly in mega‑cap territory. ^[5]

Technically, CSCO is still in a strong uptrend: a recent Barchart analysis notes the stock hit an all‑time high near $80.06 on November 20 and has traded above its 200‑day moving average since April and its 50‑day average since mid‑October. ^[6]

That backdrop sets the stage for Monday’s session: CSCO is a large‑cap AI and networking bellwether sitting close to record highs, with bullish momentum but also richer valuations and increasing insider selling.

2. What moved CSCO on Friday, November 28, 2025?

Price action and volume

On Friday, November 28:

CSCO shares traded intraday as high as $76.96 and last changed hands around $77.08 during mid‑day trading, about 1.3% higher than the prior close of $76.07. ^[7]
Volume ran at roughly 7.3 million shares, about 65% below the average daily volume near 21.1 million, consistent with a post‑holiday, low‑liquidity session. ^[8]

A MarketBeat “instant alert” piece titled “Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) Shares Up 1.3% – Should You Buy?” highlighted three main points from Friday’s move: ^[9]

Supportive analyst backdrop – multiple firms have recently raised price targets (including Argus, KeyCorp, and Piper Sandler), and MarketBeat’s compiled view describes CSCO as a “Moderate Buy” with an average target around the mid‑$80s.
Solid recent earnings and guidance – Cisco beat expectations with Q1 FY26 EPS of $1.00 vs. $0.98 expected and revenue of $14.88 billion (+7.5% YoY), and issued FY26 EPS guidance of $4.08–$4.14, above fiscal 2025. ^[10]
Mixed insider vs. institutional activity – insiders have sold over 1.0 million shares (≈$79.6M) over the past three months, but large institutions collectively own more than 73% of the float and several have been adding. ^[11]

In other words, Friday’s modest gain largely extended a broader post‑earnings rally rather than being driven by a fresh, company‑specific headline.

3. Fresh CSCO news from November 28–30, 2025

Between November 28 and 30, the most concrete CSCO‑specific news flow came from institutional position changes, updated analyst commentary, and ongoing coverage of Cisco’s AI‑driven growth story.

3.1 Institutional investors reshuffle their Cisco exposure

Several new 13F‑related headlines hit over the weekend:

WealthTrust Axiom LLC (Nov 28)
- Trimmed its Cisco stake by 9.1%, selling 8,888 shares and ending Q2 with 88,589 shares worth about $6.15 million. ^[12]
- The article underscores that despite the trim, major holders like Vanguard, Geode, Invesco and Goldman Sachs all increased positions, helping keep institutional ownership at ~73.3% of the float. ^[13]
Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (GMO) (Nov 28)
- Cut its Cisco stake by 21.7%, selling 214,877 shares to end the quarter with 773,345 shares worth roughly $53.7 million. ^[14]
Virtue Capital Management LLC (Nov 29)
- Reduced its holdings by 56.3%, selling 8,483 shares and retaining 6,593 shares valued around $457,000. ^[15]
Schroder Investment Management Group (Nov 29)
- Moved in the opposite direction, increasing its Cisco position by 3.5% in Q2, buying 139,395 shares for a total of 4.17 million shares worth about $289 million (roughly 0.11% of the company). ^[16]
Leuthold Group LLC (Nov 30)
- Boosted its stake by 46.7%, purchasing 39,356 shares to own 123,562 shares valued at about $8.57 million. ^[17]

Taken together, institutional flows are active but mixed: some managers are taking profits after a nearly 30% run‑up in 2025, while others are adding exposure on the view that Cisco’s AI, networking and security franchises still have more room to run.

3.2 Insider selling continues to make headlines

Multiple November pieces, including the latest 13F stories, emphasize ongoing insider selling:

A MarketBeat summary notes insiders have sold about 1,024,627 CSCO shares worth roughly $79.6 million over the last three months, with total insider ownership near 0.01%. ^[18]
EVP Deborah L. Stahlkopf sold 164,584 shares in mid‑November at an average price around $77.85, for proceeds of about $12.8 million. ^[19]
A separate Form 4 filing shows SVP & Chief Accounting Officer Maria Victoria Wong sold 9,801 shares on November 24 at prices between roughly $76.37 and $76.86, totaling about $748,586. ^[20]

Insider selling near multi‑decade highs is not unusual for a mature, mega‑cap tech stock, but combined with a strong year‑to‑date rally it adds to the narrative that valuation is no longer cheap.

3.3 Analyst commentary and AI‑driven upgrades

On November 29, UBS reiterated its bullish stance:

UBS lifted its CSCO price target from $88 to $90 (maintaining a “Buy” / “Strong Buy” rating), citing: ^[21]
- A double‑beat on the most recent quarter (EPS above guidance range, revenue above consensus).
- Approximately 15% year‑over‑year growth in Cisco’s Networking division, driven by demand from hyperscale data‑center and AI customers. ^[22]
- Early traction of Cisco’s next‑generation campus networking solutions, which UBS thinks will support management’s 4–6% annual revenue growth target in fiscal 2026 and 2027. ^[23]

UBS joins Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, all of which raised price targets after earnings in mid‑November. For example, recent targets include: ^[24]

Barclays: $76 (Hold)
Citigroup: $85 (Strong Buy)
JPMorgan: $90 (Buy)
Wells Fargo: $95 (Buy)

At the same time, Cisco is also receiving more nuanced coverage:

Zacks’ “Trending Stock” note (Nov 28) assigns Cisco a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), pointing out that while earnings and revenue estimates remain positive, consensus EPS for the current year has slipped slightly over the past month, and the stock earns a “D” Value Score – suggesting it trades at a premium valuation relative to peers. ^[25]
A Trefis piece from mid‑November titled “Cisco Systems Stock To $54?” highlights a bearish multi‑factor valuation model, arguing that Cisco’s current price embeds high expectations and that a retreat toward the mid‑$50s is plausible if growth or margins disappoint. ^[26]

This mix of enthusiastic price‑target hikes and valuation‑driven caution is central to how CSCO may trade around the December 1 open.

4. Fundamental backdrop: AI, networking and earnings momentum

4.1 Q1 FY26 results: classic “double beat”

On November 12, 2025, Cisco reported Q1 FY26 results that beat on both the top and bottom line:

Revenue: $14.88 billion, up 7.5% year over year (from $13.84 billion) and slightly above consensus. ^[27]
GAAP net income: $2.86 billion, or $0.72 per share, up from $0.68 a year ago. ^[28]
Non‑GAAP EPS:$1.00, beating the $0.98 Street estimate and at the high end of Cisco’s own pre‑announced range. ^[29]
Networking segment growth: several reports (including UBS and Zacks) highlight double‑digit growth, with Networking revenues up roughly 15% year over year. ^[30]

Cisco’s guidance reinforced the growth story:

Q2 FY26 guidance: revenue $15.0–$15.2 billion and non‑GAAP EPS $1.01–$1.03.
Full‑year FY26 guidance: revenue $60.2–$61.0 billion and non‑GAAP EPS $4.08–$4.14, up from $56.7 billion revenue and $3.81 non‑GAAP EPS in FY25. ^[31]

These numbers imply mid‑single‑digit revenue growth and mid‑single‑digit EPS growth on top of an already large revenue base.

4.2 AI infrastructure: from story to numbers

Zacks’ deep‑dive via Nasdaq puts more texture around Cisco’s AI narrative: ^[32]

AI infrastructure orders from web‑scale customers reached $2 billion in fiscal 2025, double management’s initial expectation.
In Q1 FY26, product orders from service providers and cloud customers jumped 45% YoY, with hyperscale AI customers a major driver.
Cisco now expects $3 billion in AI infrastructure revenue from hyperscalers in fiscal 2026, backed by a pipeline of more than $2 billion in networking orders across sovereign, “Neocloud” and enterprise customers.
Networking orders grew in the high‑teens for the fifth straight quarter, spanning hyperscale infrastructure, enterprise routing, campus switching, wireless, industrial IoT and servers.

The company is also pushing into AI‑centric products, including:

Cisco 8223, a next‑generation routing system optimized for AI workloads, powered by the new P200 chip.
Enhanced Cisco AI Assistant, new RoomOS 26 features, and AI‑powered tools for Webex customer experience. ^[33]

These are key building blocks for Cisco’s attempt to position itself as core “picks and shovels” infrastructure for the AI era, alongside chipmakers and cloud hyperscalers.

5. How Wall Street and models see CSCO from here

5.1 Consensus analyst view (12‑month horizon)

Across major aggregators, the near‑term Wall Street stance on Cisco is broadly positive:

MarketBeat:
- Consensus rating: “Moderate Buy” based on 26 analysts (17 Buy, 9 Hold).
- Average 12‑month price target: $84.14, implying around 9% upside from roughly $77. ^[34]
StockAnalysis:
- Average rating: “Buy”, with a 12‑month target around $84–85, about 9–10% above current prices. ^[35]
Benzinga analyst dashboard:
- Shows a consensus target near $77–84, a high target of $100 (Rosenblatt) and a low target around $50, with the aggregate rating around “Buy”. ^[36]
MarketWatch estimates:
- Average target price about $86.3, with an “Overweight” consensus recommendation. ^[37]

From a growth standpoint, StockAnalysis’ forecast dataset (sourced from Finnhub) shows analysts expecting: ^[38]

Revenue:
- FY25 (reported): $56.65B, +5.3% YoY.
- FY26: about $60.9B (+7.4%).
- FY27: about $63.7B (+4.6%).
EPS (likely non‑GAAP):
- FY25: $2.55.
- FY26: $4.12.
- FY27: $4.44.

At Friday’s close near $77, that implies a forward P/E of roughly 18–19x FY26 EPS, a small premium to many legacy hardware peers but below the multiples of high‑growth AI software and chip names. ^[39]

5.2 Quant and algorithmic price predictions

Aside from human analysts, a variety of model‑driven sites publish mechanical price forecasts:

CoinCodex’s 2025 projection envisions CSCO trading in a range roughly between $77 and high‑$80s, broadly consistent with today’s level plus moderate upside. ^[40]
Long‑term forecasting sites like LongForecast and CoinPriceForecast provide multi‑year scenarios that can stretch into very high numbers, but these are based on purely quantitative or heuristic models rather than detailed fundamental work; they should be treated as speculative and highly uncertain. ^[41]

These algorithmic forecasts reinforce the “modest upside, not deep value” message already visible in Wall Street targets.

5.3 Valuation pushback and downside views

Trefis’s November 14 report, “Cisco Systems Stock To $54?”, stands out as a notably bearish outlier: ^[42]

Their multi‑factor model views CSCO as “Unattractive” at current prices.
They argue that a fair value closer to the mid‑$50s is plausible, given what they see as only moderate operating performance and a high valuation multiple relative to the company’s long‑term growth profile.

Meanwhile, Zacks’ style‑score framework assigns Cisco a “D” on Value, also flagging the stock as more expensive than its peer group on common metrics like P/E and price‑to‑cash‑flow, even though earnings momentum is positive. ^[43]

Investors heading into Monday’s open should appreciate that there is meaningful dispersion in valuation views, even as the consensus rating skews bullish.

6. Dividend, balance sheet and “quality tech” profile

Cisco continues to lean into its identity as a “value‑tech” compounder rather than a pure hyper‑growth name:

Dividend:
- Quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, or $1.64 annualized, equating to a yield of roughly 2.1–2.2% at current prices. ^[44]
Payout ratio: around 60–62% of earnings, according to MarketBeat, which is substantial but consistent with Cisco’s mature cash‑generation profile. ^[45]
Balance sheet and liquidity: recent metrics show a quick ratio around 0.9, current ratio near 1.0, and debt‑to‑equity around 0.49, leaving Cisco with a manageable leverage profile. ^[46]
Capital returns: in Q1 FY26 alone, Cisco returned $3.6 billion to shareholders via dividends and buybacks, repurchasing about 29 million shares at an average of $68.28. ^[47]

This “quality plus yield” mix explains why some commentators describe CSCO as an “AI dividend stock” and why big‑money inflow studies still flag Cisco as a favorite among institutional allocators over long time horizons. ^[48]

7. Key factors for CSCO before the December 1, 2025 open

With no major Cisco‑specific economic releases scheduled for Monday morning, price action at the open is likely to track:

Broader tech and AI sentiment
- Nasdaq futures, interest‑rate expectations and any weekend macro headlines will likely set the tone for mega‑cap tech, including CSCO.
- Cisco’s recent outperformance versus both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 means it could be more sensitive to any shift toward profit‑taking. ^[49]
Positioning after a strong November
- AInvest data show CSCO is up ~5% in November alone and nearly 30% year‑to‑date, with a 52‑week gain just shy of 30%. ^[50]
- That kind of run, combined with heavy insider sales and some 13F trimming, makes a “buy the dip, sell the rip” dynamic more likely in the near term. ^[51]
Flows and narrative from the latest articles (Nov 28–30)
- Bullish inputs:
  - UBS and other banks lifting targets into the high‑$80s and $90s on AI momentum. ^[52]
  - MarketBeat’s “Shares Up 1.3% – Should You Buy?” framing Cisco as fundamentally strong with sustained demand and a healthy balance sheet. ^[53]
  - Institutional buyers like Schroder and Leuthold adding materially to their positions. ^[54]
- Cautious inputs:
  - Zacks tagging CSCO as a trending but fairly valued “Hold” with a premium multiple. ^[55]
  - GMO, Virtue Capital and others trimming stakes, plus the drumbeat of insider selling headlines. ^[56]
  - Trefis and long‑form commentators warning that Cisco’s history during the dot‑com bubble makes it a useful cautionary tale for investors extrapolating today’s AI enthusiasm too far. ^[57]

In short, fundamentals are supportive, but sentiment is no longer one‑sidedly bullish as the stock hovers near records.

8. Short‑term trading scenarios for CSCO on December 1

No one can predict Monday’s opening print with certainty, but based on the current setup, traders might think in terms of scenarios rather than point targets:

Bullish scenario

Tech and AI sentiment remains strong, bond yields stay contained, and weekend news is benign.
In this environment, Cisco’s role as an AI infrastructure and networking beneficiary could attract further flows, especially from investors looking for AI exposure with a dividend. ^[58]
Under this scenario, traders may focus on whether CSCO can retest or push through the recent all‑time high near $80, a level spotlighted by Barchart. ^[59]

Base‑case, range‑bound scenario

Markets open mixed, with little new macro data and muted volumes typical of the post‑Thanksgiving period.
CSCO could consolidate between recent support in the mid‑$70s and resistance just below $80, as investors digest November’s gains and the new batch of institutional holdings data. ^[60]
In this case, trading may be driven more by short‑term technicals and options flows than by fresh fundamentals. ^[61]

Bearish / profit‑taking scenario

Any risk‑off turn in tech (for example, a rotation away from AI winners or renewed rate fears) could see CSCO pull back more than the index, simply because it has outperformed. ^[62]
The combination of heavy insider selling, some big holders trimming stakes, and valuation concerns provides an easy narrative for short‑term sellers. ^[63]

For longer‑term investors, these day‑to‑day swings matter less than whether Cisco can hit its FY26 revenue and EPS targets and sustain AI‑driven networking growth over multiple years.

9. Longer‑term investment lens: bull vs. bear case

Bull case for CSCO

Supporters of Cisco at current levels typically point to:

AI‑driven networking boom – hyperscaler and enterprise AI build‑outs are already showing up in orders and revenue, with management targeting $3B in AI infrastructure revenue from hyperscalers in FY26. ^[64]
Durable, diversified cash flows – networking, security, collaboration and services span geographies and sectors, reducing reliance on any single product cycle. ^[65]
Attractive total‑return profile – a 2%+ dividend yield, consistent buybacks and high returns on equity create a compelling “value‑tech compounder” profile. ^[66]
Analyst support – consensus 12‑month targets in the mid‑$80s, with several large banks now modeling double‑digit upside from here. ^[67]

Bear case for CSCO

Skeptics highlight:

Valuation stretch – after a ~30% run in 2025, CSCO now trades at a premium to its historical multiples and to some peers, reflected in a low Zacks Value grade and bearish views like Trefis’s $54 scenario. ^[68]
Cyclicality of capex – AI infrastructure cycles can be boom‑and‑bust; a slowdown in data‑center or campus‑network spending could quickly compress growth. ^[69]
Execution and competition risks – Cisco faces aggressive competition from Arista, HPE and others in high‑performance networking and security; mis‑steps in product roadmaps could erode its share of AI‑driven spend. ^[70]
Insider selling signal – while insiders often sell for personal reasons, the scale and timing of recent sales near record highs can be interpreted as a sign that upside may be more limited from here. ^[71]

For investors looking at December 1 and beyond, the central question is whether Cisco’s AI‑era growth and cash‑return profile justify today’s valuation – or whether expectations have moved ahead of fundamentals.

10. Bottom line

Heading into the December 1, 2025 market open, Cisco Systems (CSCO) is:

Trading just below all‑time highs after a strong November.
Backed by solid AI‑driven earnings momentum and raised guidance, with most analysts still calling it a Buy / Moderate Buy and targeting the mid‑$80s to $90.
Seeing active but mixed flows, with big institutions both buying and trimming, and insiders consistently selling into strength.
Valued at a level where the upside case relies on Cisco delivering on its multi‑year AI networking and security ambitions.

For short‑term traders, Monday’s price action will likely hinge on broader tech sentiment and how the market digests the latest November 28–30 headlines. For longer‑term investors, CSCO remains a high‑quality, cash‑generative AI infrastructure play – but no longer the obvious bargain it looked like earlier in the year.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or trading advice. Stock markets carry risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always conduct your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.

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