Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is ending November 2025 in a very different place than it started the year: trading near 52‑week highs, leaning hard into artificial intelligence infrastructure, and drawing fresh attention from Wall Street and big institutional investors.
As of the close on November 28, Cisco Systems stock finished at $76.94, with an after‑hours quote of $77.10, near its 52‑week high of $80.06 and well above the low of $52.11. Over the past year, the stock has gained roughly 30%, with average daily trading volume around 7.3 million shares. [1]
Below is a breakdown of what’s driving the CSCO story right now — from today’s institutional‑flow headlines to earnings, AI joint ventures, and analyst targets.
Cisco Systems stock: where things stand now
Cisco’s recent run has it outperforming the broader market over the last 12 months. One recent analysis put year‑to‑date gains around 20% versus roughly 17–18% for the S&P 500, and about 28% over the past 52 weeks. [2]
Key trading stats as of November 28, 2025: [3]
- Last close: $76.94
- After‑hours: $77.10
- Day’s range: $75.81 – $76.96
- 52‑week range: $52.11 – $80.06
- 1‑year change: +29.94%
- Average daily volume: ~7.32 million shares
The uptrend has been powered by a combination of solid earnings, rising AI‑related orders, and a wave of analyst upgrades that pushed the highest price targets on CSCO into three‑digit territory.
Fresh earnings: Q1 FY 2026 beat and raised guidance
Cisco kicked off its new fiscal year with a strong Q1 FY 2026 (quarter ended October 25, 2025): [4]
- Revenue: $14.9 billion, up 8% year‑on‑year
- Non‑GAAP EPS: $1.00, up 10%, and above the prior‑year $0.91
- GAAP EPS: $0.72 vs. $0.68 a year ago
- Product revenue: up 10%, led by
- Networking: +15%
- Observability: +6%
- Services revenue: +2%
Geographically, all major regions grew: Americas +9%, EMEA +5%, and APJC +5%. [5]
Cisco also pushed guidance higher:
- Q2 FY 2026 revenue: $15.0 – $15.2 billion
- Q2 non‑GAAP EPS: $1.01 – $1.03
- Full‑year FY 2026 revenue: $60.2 – $61.0 billion
- Full‑year non‑GAAP EPS: $4.08 – $4.14 [6]
On capital returns, the company is behaving like a classic cash‑machine blue chip:
- Dividend: Cisco declared a $0.41 quarterly dividend payable January 21, 2026. At current prices, that works out to a dividend yield of a little over 2%. [7]
- Buybacks: In Q1 FY 2026, Cisco repurchased about 29 million shares for $2.0 billion, and returned $3.6 billion to shareholders in total through dividends and buybacks. [8]
In plain language: Cisco is growing again, its core networking business is accelerating, and management is confident enough to keep raising EPS guidance while shoveling cash back to shareholders.
AI super‑cycle: HUMAIN joint venture with AMD and a surge in AI orders
The most attention‑grabbing strategic move this month is Cisco’s AI infrastructure push via a new joint venture with AMD and HUMAIN. [9]
According to Evercore ISI’s note on the deal:
- The three companies plan a full‑stack AI solutions JV, with operations starting in 2026.
- Phase one is an initial 100 MW AI infrastructure build‑out, using HUMAIN’s data‑center capacity, Cisco’s networking and infrastructure gear, and AMD’s Instinct MI450 GPUs. [10]
- Evercore estimates the initial 100 MW deployment could generate $300–500 million in revenue for Cisco in 2026, adding 0.5%+ to revenue growth and about $0.02–0.04 in EPS upside. [11]
- Longer term, the JV could scale to up to 1 GW of AI capacity by 2030, translating into a $3–5 billion cumulative revenue opportunity for Cisco. [12]
That JV lands on top of already strong AI momentum in Cisco’s core business. In its latest results, Evercore highlighted that: [13]
- Product orders grew 13% year‑on‑year (9% excluding hyperscalers).
- Cisco booked $1.3 billion in AI‑related orders in the quarter, up about 50% from the prior quarter.
Those AI orders and the HUMAIN partnership are exactly the kind of story that Wall Street loves right now: recurring infrastructure demand, long‑term contracts, and a way to monetize the AI boom without being a hyper‑volatile chip stock.
Wall Street’s view: “Moderate Buy” to “Buy,” with upside to $100
Analysts have been busy upgrading and lifting price targets since Cisco’s November earnings and AI updates. Two major forecast aggregators show a broadly bullish stance:
- MarketBeat:
- Average 12‑month target:$84.14
- High target:$100, low $63
- Rating mix: 17 Buy vs. 9 Hold ratings
- Consensus: “Moderate Buy” [14]
- StockAnalysis.com:
- Based on 16 covering analysts
- Average target:$84.31 (about 9.6% upside from $76.94)
- Target range: $63 – $100
- Overall rating: “Buy” [15]
Under the hood, the upgrades have been broad‑based. Recent moves include: [16]
- UBS: price target raised $88 → $90, rating Buy
- JPMorgan:$80 → $90, Overweight
- Wells Fargo:$83 → $95, Buy
- Bank of America:$85 → $95, Buy
- Rosenblatt Securities:$87 → $100, Buy
- Melius Research: target lifted to $100, also Buy
Several of these calls directly cite AI infrastructure demand, hyperscale customers, and the traction of Cisco’s next‑generation campus and data-center platforms as key reasons for the more aggressive price targets. [17]
For context, Barchart’s earlier October analysis showed a more conservative mean price target of $76.58 when CSCO was trading lower, with a similar “Moderate Buy” stance — highlighting how quickly sentiment and targets have drifted upward as the AI narrative has strengthened. [18]
Today’s flows: new 13F filings, institutional positioning and insider selling
The latest batch of 13F‑related headlines around November 27–30 offers a snapshot of how big money is treating Cisco Systems stock.
Institutional investors: net buyers, but some trimming
A series of MarketBeat “instant alerts” over the last few days shows both accumulation and profit‑taking among institutional holders: [19]
- Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.
- Increased its Cisco position by 4.3%, adding 17,664 shares in Q2 to reach 426,427 shares.
- Mackenzie Financial Corp
- Bought 1,667,978 shares in Q2, boosting its stake by 63.7% to about 4.29 million shares, valued near $297 million.
- Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc.
- Opened a new position in Cisco, buying 4,270 shares worth roughly $296,000.
On the other side of the ledger:
- Virtue Capital Management LLC
- Cut its Cisco holdings by 56.3%, selling 8,483 shares and ending Q2 with 6,593 shares (~$457,000). [20]
- Level Four Advisory Services LLC
- Reduced its position by 4.7%, selling 4,530 shares to hold 92,005 shares (~$6.38 million). [21]
- Groupama Asset Management
- Trimmed its stake by 5.9%, selling 11,108 shares and finishing the quarter with 176,400 shares (~$12.11 million). [22]
Despite isolated selling, the high‑level picture is that institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own about 73.3% of Cisco’s shares, underscoring CSCO’s status as a core large‑cap tech holding in many portfolios. [23]
Insiders: over 1 million shares sold in 90 days
While institutions have mostly been net buyers, insiders have been heavy sellers recently. Across several disclosures, MarketBeat tracks roughly 1,024,627 shares sold by insiders over the last 90 days, with total proceeds around $79.6 million. [24]
Notable transactions include:
- CEO Chuck Robbins – sold about 281,860 shares, for proceeds estimated above $22 million.
- EVP Deborah Stahlkopf – sold roughly 164,584 shares, for more than $12 million.
- Insider Jeetendra Patel and SVP Maria Victoria Wong also executed sizable sales in mid‑November. [25]
Insider ownership is now extremely low (around 0.01% of outstanding shares), which some investors view as a yellow flag, while others chalk it up to compensation and diversification rather than a fundamental red alert. [26]
Dividend, balance sheet, and valuation check
From a fundamentals standpoint, Cisco still looks like a classic “quality tech” name rather than a hyper‑growth story.
Dividend & buybacks
- Quarterly dividend: $0.41 per share, or $1.64 annually, implying a yield slightly above 2% at recent prices. [27]
- Q1 FY 2026 shareholder returns: $3.6 billion total via dividends and repurchases. [28]
Balance sheet
- Cash and investments: $15.7 billion at quarter‑end.
- Total assets: about $121.1 billion
- Total liabilities: about $74.2 billion [29]
Growth and valuation
Analyst forecast data compiled by StockAnalysis implies: [30]
- FY 2026 revenue: expected around $60.9 billion, up ~7.4% from FY 2025.
- FY 2026 EPS (non‑GAAP): about $4.12, rising to $4.44 the following year.
- At roughly $77 per share, that puts Cisco’s forward P/E ratio near the high teens (around 18–19x).
That multiple is higher than Cisco’s cheapest days but still a discount to many pure‑play AI and software names. The market seems to be treating Cisco as a durable, cash‑rich infrastructure provider with moderate growth — not a speculative moonshot.
What could move Cisco Systems stock next
Heading into December and 2026, several themes are likely to drive CSCO’s performance:
- Execution on the HUMAIN / AMD AI joint venture
- How quickly the initial 100 MW of AI infrastructure translates into revenue in 2026.
- Whether the roadmap toward 1 GW by 2030 holds, unlocking the potential $3–5 billion revenue opportunity Evercore outlined. [31]
- Sustainability of AI‑related orders
- Cisco’s $1.3 billion in AI orders and 50% quarter‑over‑quarter growth is impressive, but investors will want to see that pace persist as hyperscale budgets and AI workloads evolve. [32]
- Product mix shifts
- Networking growth (+15%) is carrying the load, while Security (-2%) and Collaboration (-3%) are still under pressure. A turn in those segments would strengthen the long‑term thesis that Cisco is becoming a more software‑ and subscription‑driven business. [33]
- Margin resilience in a tariff and capex‑heavy world
- Cisco’s non‑GAAP gross margin remains high at 68.1%, but management has explicitly said its FY 2026 guidance already bakes in tariff impacts. Investors will be watching how margins hold up as AI infrastructure ramps and global trade dynamics shift. [34]
- Insider and institutional behavior
- Continued heavy insider selling could keep some investors cautious.
- On the flip side, additional large institutional buys — like the recent moves by Mackenzie Financial and others — would signal confidence that Cisco’s AI and networking strategy still has room to run. [35]
Bottom line
On November 30, 2025, Cisco Systems stock sits in an interesting sweet spot:
- The share price is near all‑time highs, but still below the cluster of $90–$100 analyst price targets. [36]
- The company is delivering solid mid‑single‑digit to high‑single‑digit revenue growth, backed by a powerful AI infrastructure and networking story. [37]
- Shareholders are being paid along the way via a 2%+ dividend and aggressive buybacks. [38]
The main counterpoints are well known: intense competition across networking and security, the risk that AI capex cycles cool, and the signal (or noise) from over 1 million shares of insider sales in recent months. [39]
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.barchart.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. newsroom.cisco.com, 5. newsroom.cisco.com, 6. newsroom.cisco.com, 7. newsroom.cisco.com, 8. newsroom.cisco.com, 9. www.investing.com, 10. www.investing.com, 11. www.investing.com, 12. www.investing.com, 13. www.investing.com, 14. www.marketbeat.com, 15. stockanalysis.com, 16. www.marketbeat.com, 17. www.insidermonkey.com, 18. www.barchart.com, 19. www.marketbeat.com, 20. www.marketbeat.com, 21. www.marketbeat.com, 22. www.marketbeat.com, 23. www.marketbeat.com, 24. www.marketbeat.com, 25. www.marketbeat.com, 26. www.marketbeat.com, 27. newsroom.cisco.com, 28. newsroom.cisco.com, 29. newsroom.cisco.com, 30. stockanalysis.com, 31. www.investing.com, 32. www.investing.com, 33. newsroom.cisco.com, 34. newsroom.cisco.com, 35. www.marketbeat.com, 36. stockanalysis.com, 37. newsroom.cisco.com, 38. newsroom.cisco.com, 39. www.marketbeat.com
