Cisco Systems (CSCO) — Company Research

Last Updated: 6 May 2026

Cisco Systems is the wire-and-software backbone of the corporate internet, and after a year reshaped by the Splunk acquisition it now reports a Security business large enough to matter to the consolidated growth rate, a meaningful Observability line, and an AI-infrastructure pipeline tied to webscale customers. This research note pulls together what Cisco actually sells, how the segment mix has shifted, the cash it generates, the capital it returns, and what is on the calendar over the next quarter — all from the company's own filings and disclosures, with no analyst opinions or ratings included.

1. Company Snapshot

Name	Cisco Systems, Inc.
Ticker	CSCO (Nasdaq)
Sector / Industry	Technology / Communication Equipment
Market cap	$361.97 billion
Enterprise value	$388.44 billion
Latest fiscal-year revenue	$56.65 billion (FY2025, ended 26 July 2025)
Employees	~86,200
CEO	Charles H. Robbins (Chair & CEO since July 2015)
Headquarters	170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, California
Website	cisco.com
Price (intraday 6 May 2026)	$91.64
52-week range	$59.07 – $94.72

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull case

• FY2025 revenue grew 5.3% year-over-year to $56.65 billion, with growth across all three geographic segments and a 64.94% gross margin — Splunk's first full year is now visibly contributing.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): total software revenue reached $22.3 billion (+21%) and total subscription revenue grew 15%, both lifted by Splunk's contribution, broadening the recurring-revenue base.
• Free cash flow of $13.29 billion in FY2025 funded $5.99 billion of buybacks and $6.44 billion of dividends, with management's stated policy to return at least 50% of free cash flow each year.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): remaining performance obligations stand at $43.53 billion (+6% YoY), with about 50% expected to convert to revenue in the next twelve months — a cushion under reported revenue.
• AI-related product demand from webscale customers is showing up in service-provider product growth and in expanded purchase commitments to manufacture Cisco Silicon One components.

Bear case

• The trailing P/E of 35.11 and P/S of 6.39 sit well above the company's pre-Splunk multiples; FY2025 net income of $10.18 billion is below the FY2023 figure of $12.61 billion despite the much larger revenue base.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): Networking product revenue (still the largest single category at $28.30 billion) declined 3% in FY2025, with the decline blamed on shipments returning to normalized levels and weakness in campus switching and servers.
• Total debt of $28.09 billion is more than 3× the FY2023 level of $8.39 billion, the legacy of the Splunk financing — and Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco issued an additional $5.0 billion in senior notes in February 2025 with maturities to 2055.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): operating income margin and EPS were dragged in FY2025 by amortization of purchased intangibles and a Q4 charge from a legal dispute settled with a supplier on 26 August 2025; tariff and trade-policy exposure is flagged as a continuing risk.
• Q4 FY2025 product gross-margin percentage compressed by 1.2 points year-over-year, and management has cited continued price competition (especially from Asia) as a structural headwind.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Cisco builds and sells networking, security, collaboration and observability technology, and surrounds it with technical-support and professional services. The company manages the business primarily by geography but discloses revenue along three additional cuts: product vs services, geographic segment, and product category.

Revenue by type (FY2025) — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03):

• Product: $41,608 million (73.4% of revenue)
• Services: $15,046 million (26.6% of revenue)

Revenue by geographic segment (FY2025) — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03):

• Americas: $33,656 million (59.4%)
• EMEA: $14,824 million (26.2%)
• APJC: $8,174 million (14.4%)

Product revenue by category (FY2025) — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03):

• Networking: $28,304 million (down 3% YoY)
• Security: $8,094 million (up 59% YoY, primarily driven by Splunk's threat-intelligence/detection/response offerings)
• Collaboration: $4,154 million (up 1% YoY)
• Observability: $1,055 million (up 26% YoY, driven by Splunk Observability and ThousandEyes)

In plain English: Cisco still gets the bulk of its money from selling switches, routers, wireless gear and the support contracts that come with them. Roughly six out of every ten dollars of revenue come from the Americas. Splunk's contribution has now permanently re-shaped the Security and Observability lines into much larger contributors than they were eighteen months ago.

4. The Business Model

Cisco sells hardware (switches, routers, wireless access points, servers, collaboration devices), perpetual and subscription software licences, SaaS products, and a long tail of support and professional services. Revenue is split between products (≈73%) and services (≈27%) per Section 3, and increasingly between perpetual one-time licences and recurring subscription/SaaS streams.

A few mechanics worth understanding:

• Channel-heavy distribution. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): a substantial portion of products and services sell indirectly through systems integrators, service providers, resellers and distributors, with revenue from two-tier distributors recognized on a sell-in basis. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): channel-partner financing volume was $24.9 billion in FY2025 (down from $27.1 billion in FY2024 and $32.1 billion in FY2023), and Cisco guarantees a portion of those arrangements (the guaranteed balance was $1.3 billion at year-end FY2025).
• Software/subscription mix is rising. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): total software revenue was $22.3 billion in FY2025 (+21%) and total subscription revenue grew 15%, both lifted by Splunk's first full year of inclusion.
• Backlog provides forward visibility. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): remaining performance obligations stood at $43.53 billion at year-end FY2025 ($21.57bn product + $21.96bn services), with $21.72 billion classified as short-term and $21.81 billion as long-term, and roughly 50% of total RPO expected to convert to revenue over the next twelve months.
• Margins. Reported gross margin was 64.94% in FY2025; operating margin (JSON-sourced) was 22.07%; net margin was 17.97%.
• Capital return is structural. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco targets returning at least 50% of free cash flow annually to stockholders via dividends and buybacks; FY2025 returned $6.44bn in dividends ($1.62 per share) and $5.99bn of repurchases at a weighted-average $56.53 per share. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): the remaining repurchase authorization at fiscal year-end stood at approximately $14.2 billion with no termination date.
• Manufacturing is outsourced. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco relies on third-party contract manufacturers and has not entered into any significant long-term contracts with them, generally renewing arrangements as needed.
• No headline subsidy or regulatory-credit dependency disclosed. Cisco does not report a material concentration of revenue or profit from government incentives, tax credits or regulatory credits in this filing's source data.

5. Financial Health

Five-year annual trend ($ millions, fiscal years ending in late July)

Metric	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
Revenue	51,557	56,998	53,803	56,654
Gross profit	32,248	35,753	34,828	36,790
Operating income	13,975	15,562	12,970	12,504
Net income	11,812	12,613	10,320	10,180
Diluted EPS ($)	2.82	3.07	2.54	2.61
Operating cash flow	13,226	19,886	10,880	14,193
Free cash flow	12,749	19,037	10,210	13,288
Cash & equivalents	7,079	10,123	7,508	8,346
Total debt	9,515	8,391	30,973	28,093
Total equity	39,773	44,353	45,457	46,843
Diluted share count (m)	4,192	4,105	4,062	3,998
Stock buybacks (cash-flow line)	8,381	4,890	6,779	7,222
Dividends paid	6,224	6,302	6,384	6,437

The step-change in total debt between FY2023 and FY2024 reflects the financing for the Splunk acquisition. FY2025 saw debt reduce slightly to $28.09 billion. Diluted share count is down from 4.19 billion in FY2022 to 3.998 billion in FY2025 — a 4.6% reduction over three years, funded out of internally-generated cash. Note that the JSON-sourced "stock buybacks (cash-flow line)" of $7.22 billion in FY2025 is broader than the 10-K's stock-repurchase program figure of $5.99 billion (the cash-flow line additionally captures share withholding for taxes on vested employee equity awards, the difference of approximately $1.23 billion).

Recent quarterly trend (USD millions, fiscal quarters)

Quarter ended	Revenue	Gross profit	Gross margin	Operating income	Net income	Diluted EPS ($)	Free cash flow
Q2 FY26 — 31 Jan 2026	15,349	9,972	65.0%	3,817	3,175	0.80	1,539
Q1 FY26 — 31 Oct 2025	14,883	9,745	65.5%	3,510	2,860	0.72	2,889
Q4 FY25 — 31 Jul 2025	14,673	9,280	63.2%	3,122	2,550	0.71	4,017
Q3 FY25 — 30 Apr 2025	14,149	9,278	65.6%	3,236	2,491	0.62	3,796
Q2 FY25 — 31 Jan 2025	13,991	9,111	65.1%	3,123	2,428	0.61	2,031

Sequential quarterly revenue has stepped up in each of the last five quarters, with Q2 FY26 setting a new quarterly high of $15.35 billion. Quarterly diluted EPS rose from $0.61 in Q2 FY25 to $0.80 in Q2 FY26.

Debt structure — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): senior notes outstanding at fiscal year-end totalled $24.75 billion in principal across maturities from February 2026 to February 2064, including a $5.0 billion issuance in February 2025 (tranches of $1.0bn at 4.55% due 2028, $1.0bn at 4.75% due 2030, $1.0bn at 4.95% due 2032, $1.25bn at 5.10% due 2035, and $750m at 5.50% due 2055). Commercial paper outstanding fell to $3.5 billion from $10.9 billion a year earlier. Cisco also has a $5.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility (5-year, restated 2 February 2024) with no drawn balance at year-end.

6. Valuation & Market Data

All figures as of intraday 6 May 2026 unless dated otherwise.

Metric	Value
Price	$91.64
Previous close	$94.30
Day range	$91.00 – $93.42
52-week high	$94.72
52-week low	$59.07
Market cap	$361.97 billion
Enterprise value	$388.44 billion
Shares outstanding	3.95 billion
Float	3.94 billion
Beta (5Y monthly)	0.91
Trailing P/E	35.11
Forward P/E (yfinance)	20.31
P/S (trailing)	6.39
P/B	7.73
EV / Revenue	6.86
EV / Operating income (proxy)	31.07
FCF yield	3.67%
Dividend yield	1.78%
Today's volume	21.04 million
10-day average volume	16.71 million
Short interest (shares short, % of float, days to cover)	not disclosed in this report's source data
Put/call ratio	not disclosed in this report's source data

Note on EV/EBITDA: the source data provides an EV/operating-income proxy of 31.07× because depreciation & amortization were not separately available; this is conservative — adding back D&A would reduce the multiple.

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

Cisco's stated strategy (One Cisco) groups its work into three customer outcomes: AI-ready data centres, future-proofed workplaces, and digital resilience. The concrete shipping product and pipeline disclosures in the source data are:

• Cisco Universal Quantum Switch. Announced April 2026 — a room-temperature device designed to route and translate quantum information across multiple encoding modalities over standard telecom fibre with minimal loss of fidelity (recent_news entry, published 5 May 2026). Cisco frames it as an extension of its networking expertise into quantum-era infrastructure.
• Smart Switches (Catalyst 9350 / 9610). Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): a new generation of enterprise switches built on Cisco Silicon One, AI-ready with embedded telemetry/assurance and quantum-resistant security and post-quantum cryptography. They can be managed via either Catalyst Center or Meraki Dashboard.
• Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches with embedded DPUs. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): introduced during fiscal 2025 with a new class of intelligent networking silicon and embedded Data Processing Units to offload complex data-processing tasks from server CPUs to the switch.
• Cisco Hypershield. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): a cloud-native, AI-powered approach to highly distributed security for AI-scale data centres, built into the fabric of the network and shipped first as a service offering embedded on the new N9300 Smart Switches.
• Splunk-Cisco XDR integration. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco continues integrating Cisco Extended Detection and Response (XDR) with Splunk Enterprise Security to create a unified solution.
• Astrix Security acquisition. Cisco announced plans to acquire Astrix Security to expand its security offerings around access and connectivity (recent_news entry, Simply Wall St., 5 May 2026).
• Qmulos partnership. Qmulos compliance and analytics products are being added to Cisco's Global Price List through the SolutionsPlus program, with deeper integration with Splunk (recent_news entry, Simply Wall St., 5 May 2026).
• AI infrastructure for webscale. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): service-provider-and-cloud product revenue growth in FY2025 was driven by AI-infrastructure revenue from webscale customers, and Cisco entered additional purchase commitments related to manufacturing Cisco Silicon One and other products to meet that demand. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): inventory purchase commitments rose to $7.60 billion at year-end FY2025 from $5.16 billion at year-end FY2024 (+47%).

8. Competitive Landscape

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco lists the following as competitors across at least some of its product lines: Amazon Web Services LLC; Arista Networks, Inc.; Broadcom Inc.; Ciena Corporation; CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.; Datadog Inc.; Dell Technologies Inc.; Dynatrace Inc.; Fortinet, Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.; Microsoft Corporation; New Relic, Inc.; Nokia Corporation; Nvidia Corporation; Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; RingCentral, Inc.; Zoom Video Communications, Inc.; and Zscaler, Inc.

A simplified mapping by category:

Cisco product area	Principal competitors named in 10-K
Networking (switching, routing, wireless, servers)	Arista Networks, Broadcom, HPE, Dell Technologies, Huawei, Nvidia, Nokia, Ciena
Security (network security, IAM, SASE, TIDR)	Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Microsoft
Collaboration (Webex, contact centre, CPaaS)	Microsoft, Zoom Video Communications, RingCentral
Observability (network assurance, monitoring, full-stack)	Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic
Data centre / AI infrastructure	AWS, Microsoft, Nvidia, HPE, Dell Technologies

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): barriers to entry are described as relatively low, and Cisco specifically calls out price-focused competition from Asia (especially China) as continuing. Cisco competes simultaneously with strategic-alliance partners in adjacent areas — a recurring complication when the company sells networking gear to hyperscalers that also operate competing platforms.

Specific market-share percentages per competitor are not disclosed in this report's source data, so the competitor-share visualisation is omitted.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Executive officers (per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03), as of 31 August 2025)

Officer	Position	Age (10-K)	Notes
Charles H. Robbins	Chair & Chief Executive Officer	59	CEO since July 2015; Chair since December 2017; joined Cisco in December 1997. Director of BlackRock, Inc.
Mark Patterson	EVP & Chief Financial Officer	55	CFO since July 2025; previously Chief Strategy Officer (Mar 2024 – Jul 2025); at Cisco since September 2000.
Jeetendra Patel	President, Chief Product Officer	54	President & CPO since May 2025; joined Cisco July 2020 from Box, Inc.
Deborah L. Stahlkopf	EVP & Chief Legal Officer	55	Joined August 2021 from Microsoft (14 years there).
Thimaya Subaiya	EVP, Operations	47	Joined Cisco July 2018 from Salesforce.
Oliver Tuszik	EVP, Global Sales	57	Joined Cisco July 2013; EVP Global Sales since April 2025.

Top institutional holders (as of 31 December 2025)

Holder	Shares	% of shares	Reported value
Vanguard Group Inc.	398,943,293	10.10%	$36.56 billion
BlackRock, Inc.	378,336,071	9.58%	$34.67 billion
State Street Corporation	195,521,161	4.95%	$17.92 billion
Geode Capital Management, LLC	99,624,866	2.52%	$9.13 billion
Morgan Stanley	75,326,258	1.91%	$6.90 billion
Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc.	70,521,797	1.79%	$6.46 billion
FMR, LLC	65,445,654	1.66%	$6.00 billion
Invesco Ltd.	59,836,782	1.51%	$5.48 billion
Norges Bank	58,071,810	1.47%	$5.32 billion
Bank of America Corporation	52,148,049	1.32%	$4.78 billion

The top three index-driven holders (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street) collectively owned 24.6% of shares outstanding at 31 December 2025.

Recent insider filings (Form 4 / Form 5)

Date	Insider	Position	Shares	Reported value (USD)
2026-04-06	Shimer, Peter A.	Director	2,333	—
2026-03-20	Patterson, Mark	Chief Financial Officer	4,892	$381,450
2026-03-18	Tuszik, Oliver	Officer	3,132	$249,746
2026-03-17	Stahlkopf, Deborah L.	Officer	7,981	$634,513
2026-03-16	Johnson, Kristina Mary	Director	383	$30,219
2026-03-16	Weil, Kevin	Director	383	$30,219
2026-03-16	Tessel, Marianna	Director	383	$30,219
2026-03-12	Subaiya, Thimaya K.	Officer	1,744	$134,410
2026-03-11	Wong, Maria Victoria	Officer	551	$42,725
2026-02-24	Wong, Maria Victoria	Officer	2,179	$169,395

Note: the report's source data does not record a buy/sell direction or a 10b5-1 plan flag for these specific filings, so the article cannot characterise them as discretionary purchases or pre-planned sales.

Company-level capital return — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): in fiscal 2025 Cisco bought back 105 million shares at a weighted-average $56.53 per share for $5.99 billion under the stock-repurchase program (vs. 117 million shares at $49.45 averaging $5.76 billion in FY2024 and 88 million shares at $48.49 averaging $4.27 billion in FY2023) and paid dividends of $1.62 per share totalling $6.44 billion. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): on 13 August 2025 the Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share, paid 22 October 2025; the remaining buyback authorization at year-end was approximately $14.2 billion with no termination date.

10. Risks and Challenges

Cisco's own disclosures cluster the principal risks into a few buckets.

• Trade policy and tariffs. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco operates in a highly competitive environment that is "complex especially with respect to tariffs and trade policy", and exposure to new and proposed tariffs is uncertain but could be significant if the exposure remains and cannot be mitigated.
• Supply chain and inventory. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): inventory purchase commitments increased 47% to $7.60 billion at year-end FY2025, with combined inventory plus purchase commitments up 26%, primarily for Cisco Silicon One and webscale-related demand. The company explicitly flags risk of future material excess and obsolete inventory if product demand decreases for a sustained period or planned products fail to find demand.
• Legal disputes with suppliers. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2025-09-03): a Q4 FY2025 charge to product cost of sales arose from a legal dispute with a supplier over purchase obligations under long-term supply arrangements, settled on 26 August 2025 — and product gross margin is described as having been reduced by 0.8 percentage points by this item in fiscal 2025.
• Competitive pressure. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): barriers to entry are described as relatively low, and Cisco specifically calls out price-focused competition from Asia (especially China). Some strategic-alliance partners are also competitors in adjacent product areas.
• Acquisition integration risk. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco's risk-factor language explicitly includes "We have made and expect to continue to make acquisitions that could disrupt our operations and harm our operating results." The Splunk integration drove the FY2024 jump in debt and the FY2025 amortization of purchased intangibles that pressured operating margin.
• Regulatory uncertainty. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco lists privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, operational resilience, AI, tax, trade, encryption technology, environmental sustainability (including climate change), human rights, product certification, and national security among the regulatory areas in which evolving rules could materially harm the business.
• Technology shifts and IP. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): Cisco's success depends on its ability to develop new products that meet rapidly-changing technology and customer requirements; U.S. copyright/patent protection for AI-generated works may be limited or unavailable.
• Cyber incidents. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2025-09-03): cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents on Cisco's solutions, IT environment, customers' or third-party providers' networks, or third-party products it uses are explicitly listed as risk factors that could damage operations and reputation.
• Channel concentration. A substantial portion of revenue moves through systems integrators, service providers, resellers and distributors, with channel-partner financing volume of $24.9 billion in FY2025 and a $1.3 billion guaranteed balance — disruptions to that channel feed straight through to reported sales.
• Capital structure. Total debt of $28.09 billion is materially higher than the pre-Splunk level; interest expense rose to $1.59 billion in FY2025 from $0.43 billion in FY2023.

11. Recent Developments

The most recent items first; URLs are taken verbatim from the report's source recent_news[].

• 6 May 2026 — Cisco earnings preview (Zacks). Note that Cisco "possesses the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report." (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/cisco-systems-csco-earnings-expected-140003819.html)
• 6 May 2026 — Wall Street view of Cisco (Zacks). Discussion of brokerage recommendations on CSCO. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/worth-investing-cisco-csco-based-133004629.html)
• 6 May 2026 — Long-run Cisco performance (Zacks). Retrospective on a $1,000 hypothetical investment a decade ago. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/heres-much-youd-invested-1000-123004621.html)
• 5 May 2026 — Universal Quantum Switch (Simply Wall St., reporting an April 2026 Cisco announcement). Cisco unveiled the Universal Quantum Switch, a room-temperature device designed to route and translate quantum information across multiple encoding modalities over standard telecom fibre with minimal loss of fidelity. The piece frames it as an effort to extend Cisco's networking expertise into quantum-era infrastructure. (https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/cisco-universal-quantum-switch-redefine-050955638.html)
• 5 May 2026 — Astrix Security and Qmulos (Simply Wall St.). Cisco announced plans to acquire Astrix Security to expand security offerings around access and connectivity. Separately, Qmulos compliance and analytics products are being added to Cisco's Global Price List through SolutionsPlus, with the partnership designed to deepen integration with Splunk (now part of Cisco). (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/cisco-security-push-astrix-qmulos-043615049.html)
• 5 May 2026 — Broad market context (MT Newswires). Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 hit fresh peaks as oil retreated. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/nasdaq-p-500-hit-fresh-203819719.html)
• 6 May 2026 — Industry context (Trefis). Comparative valuation piece about Cisco competitor Zoom Communications. (https://www.trefis.com/articles/598503/does-zoom-look-undervalued-at-18x-earnings/2026-05-06)
• 5 May 2026 — Sector context (Zacks). Microchip Technology Q4 earnings preview. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/microchip-report-q4-earnings-whats-164100474.html)
• 5 May 2026 — Sector context (Zacks). News Corp Q3 earnings preview. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/nwsas-q3-earnings-coming-whats-134200065.html)
• 4 May 2026 — Broad market context (Motley Fool). Stock-market wrap referencing BlackBerry's QNX adoption. (https://www.fool.com/coverage/stock-market-today/2026/05/04/stock-market-today-may-4-blackberry-jumps-after-qnx-software-momentum-boosts-turnaround-optimism/)

In SEC filings, the most recent are an 8-K filed 1 May 2026 (event date 27 April 2026), an 8-K filed 6 April 2026 (event date 31 March 2026), and the Q2 FY2026 10-Q filed 17 February 2026.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

Event	Date
Next earnings (Q3 FY2026 expected)	13 May 2026
Most recent ex-dividend date	2 April 2026
Most recent dividend payment date	22 April 2026

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Disclaimer: This research note is for general information only and does not constitute investment advice, an offer to buy or sell any security, or a personalised recommendation. Figures are drawn from Cisco's own filings and from the data sources listed at the top of the underlying dataset; while we have taken care to attribute numerical claims to their source, no guarantee of accuracy is given. Markets are volatile, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.

Last Updated: 3 May 2026

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the world's largest enterprise networking vendor and a Dow 30 / S&P 500 / Nasdaq-100 constituent. Following the $28 bn Splunk acquisition (closed 18 March 2024), Cisco has repositioned itself as the critical infrastructure layer for the AI era — spanning Networking, Security, Collaboration and Observability. Q2 FY26 (quarter ended 24 January 2026) revenue was a record $15.3 bn (+10% YoY) with non-GAAP EPS $1.04 (+11%); Networking revenue $8.3 bn (+21%) and AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers reached $2.1 bn in the quarter alone — matching the entire FY25 total — on top of $1.3 bn in Q1. Management lifted FY26 revenue guidance to $61.2–$61.7 bn and now expects to take >$5.0 bn of AI infrastructure orders and recognise >$3.0 bn of AI infrastructure revenue from hyperscalers in FY26. On 9 April 2026 Cisco announced its intent to acquire AI-observability platform Galileo Technologies (closing expected Q4 FY26) to extend Splunk Observability Cloud's agent-monitoring capabilities. Q3 FY26 results are due Wednesday 13 May 2026 after market close. The next quarterly dividend of $0.42 was paid 22 April 2026 (ex-div 2 April 2026). On 1 May 2026 the stock closed at $92.92 — a fresh 52-week (and multi-year) high. For live pricing see our live charts, upcoming releases on the economic calendar, and discussion on the ChartsView forum.

1. Company Snapshot

Company	Cisco Systems, Inc.
Ticker	NASDAQ: CSCO (Dow 30, S&P 500, Nasdaq-100)
Sector / Industry	Technology / Communications Equipment / Enterprise Networking & Security
HQ	170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, CA 95134, USA
Chair & CEO	Charles "Chuck" Robbins (CEO since 26 July 2015; Chair since December 2017)
EVP & CFO	R. Scott Herren
President, Networking	Jeetu Patel (Chief Product Officer; expanded role post-Splunk)
Founded	December 1984 (incorporated 10 December 1984; IPO 1990)
Employees	~90,000 globally (per FY25 10-K, after FY24 restructurings of ~9,600 roles and the Splunk integration; ongoing reallocation toward AI/silicon)
Fiscal year end	Last Saturday of July (FY25 ended 26 July 2025; FY26 ends ~25 July 2026)
Share price (1 May 2026 close)	$92.92 (52-week high reached same day)
52-week range	$58.58 (low, 2025) — $92.92 (high, 1 May 2026)
Market cap (1 May 2026)	~$362.8 bn
Enterprise value	~$378.8 bn
FY25 revenue / non-GAAP op margin	$56.7 bn (+5%) / FY25 non-GAAP gross margin 67.6%
Q2 FY26 revenue	$15.3 bn (+10% YoY; record quarter)
Total ARR / Total RPO (Q2 FY26)	$31.0 bn (+3%) / $43.4 bn (+5%; product RPO +8%)
AI infrastructure orders (FY26 YTD H1)	$3.4 bn from hyperscalers (Q1 $1.3 bn + Q2 $2.1 bn); FY26 target raised to >$5.0 bn
Quarterly dividend	$0.42 (raised 2% from $0.41 in Feb 2026); $1.68 annualised; ex-div 2 Apr 2026, paid 22 Apr 2026
Buyback authorisation remaining	~$17 bn (after $15 bn top-up announced Feb 2025)
Website	cisco.com / investor.cisco.com

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case	Bear Case
AI infrastructure inflection: $2.1 bn hyperscaler AI orders in Q2 FY26 alone — matched the full FY25 total ($2 bn). Management raised FY26 AI order target above $5 bn and now expects >$3 bn of AI infrastructure revenue recognised from hyperscalers in FY26.	Arista Networks took the data-center Ethernet switch crown from Cisco in late 2024 / 2025 and continues to grow Ethernet switch revenue +27% YoY; NVIDIA passed both Cisco and Arista in datacentre Ethernet sales in 2025 thanks to Spectrum-X integration with its GPUs.
Networking re-acceleration: Networking revenue +21% YoY in Q2 FY26 to $8.3 bn; product orders +18% YoY (networking orders >20%); Splunk integrated into XDR / Hypershield / AI Defense / Multicloud Defense for an end-to-end AI security platform.	Security segment volatility: revenue −4% YoY in Q2 FY26 and −2% in Q1 FY26 as Splunk customers shift from on-premise to cloud subscriptions — management said the on-prem-to-cloud transition will continue to drag through H2 FY26.
NVIDIA partnership deepening: Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA expanded at NVIDIA GTC March 2026; Hypershield runs on Silicon One + NVIDIA BlueField DPUs; Cisco-NVIDIA joint engagements +70% sequentially.	Microsoft Teams continues to outpace Webex in collaboration; Webex held ~5–9% of the global web-conferencing market in 2025 vs Teams at ~23% and Zoom at ~28%.
Capital return at scale: $0.42 quarterly dividend (43rd consecutive year of payments since 2011); ~$17 bn buyback authorisation remaining after Feb-2025 $15 bn top-up; 18 m shares bought back in Q2 FY26 alone at $76.29 average for $1.4 bn; $3.0 bn returned to shareholders in Q2 FY26.	Headline growth depends on AI: if AI hyperscaler orders normalise after the FY26 ramp, the underlying enterprise networking + Splunk business is growing single-digits; FY25 organic growth was +5% with Splunk now in the comparable base.
Silicon One scaling: G200 (51.2 Tbps, 5 nm) shipping; G300 (102.4 Tbps) announced February 2026 for agentic-era AI clusters; Silicon One adopted by multiple top-5 hyperscalers for AI training/inference fabrics.	Stock at fresh 52-week high $92.92 (1 May 2026) up ~59% over the trailing 12 months; trailing P/E 33, EV/EBITDA 23 — valuation has caught up to the AI-infrastructure story ahead of the Q3 FY26 print on 13 May.
Galileo acquisition (announced 9 April 2026, closing Q4 FY26) plugs AI agent observability into Splunk Observability Cloud — a strategic capability layer as enterprises move from AI pilots to production agentic systems.	Cumulative restructurings: ~4,000 roles cut in February 2024, ~5,600 in August 2024 (~7% of headcount across that year), plus targeted reductions through 2025/2026 (incl. 221 Milpitas/SF roles October 2025) signal continued cost reshaping.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Cisco designs, manufactures and sells networking, security, collaboration and observability hardware, software and services to enterprises, service providers and governments worldwide. Following the Splunk acquisition (closed 18 March 2024 for $28 bn / $157 per share — the largest deal in Cisco's history), the portfolio is grouped into four product categories plus services.

Q2 FY26 revenue mix by product category ($ billions, share of total):

• Networking — $8.3 bn (~54.2% of total / ~71.5% of product); +21% YoY. Includes campus & data centre switching (Catalyst, Nexus), routing, wireless (Meraki, Catalyst Wi-Fi), Silicon One ASICs, AI/ML PODs and optics.
• Security — $2.0 bn (~13.1% of total / ~17.2% of product); −4% YoY due to Splunk on-prem-to-cloud subscription transition. Includes Splunk SIEM/SOAR, XDR, Secure Access (SSE), Hybrid Mesh Firewall (Secure Firewall 6100/220 series), Hypershield, AI Defense, Talos.
• Collaboration — $1.1 bn (~7.2% of total / ~9.5% of product); +6% YoY. Webex Suite, Webex Calling, contact center, devices.
• Observability — $277 m (~1.8% of total / ~2.4% of product); flat YoY. Splunk Observability Cloud, AppDynamics, ThousandEyes.
• Services — $3.7 bn (~24.2% of total); −1% YoY. Technical services, software/solution support, advisory, training.

Geographic mix (Q2 FY26): Americas $8.8 bn (~57.5%, +8% YoY); EMEA $4.4 bn (~28.8%, +15% YoY — led by AI build-outs); APJC (Asia-Pacific, Japan and China) $2.1 bn (~13.7%, +8% YoY). Product/services split: Product $11.6 bn (~75.8%, +14% YoY); Services $3.7 bn (~24.2%, −1% YoY). Recurring revenue: total ARR $31.0 bn (+3%), product ARR +6%; Total RPO $43.4 bn (+5%), product RPO +8%, long-term product RPO $11.8 bn (+11%).

4. The Business Model

Cisco operates a hybrid hardware-plus-software-plus-services model that has been steadily shifting toward subscription. Roughly $31 bn (~55% of FY25 revenue run-rate) is now annualised recurring revenue. Networking hardware (switches, routers, wireless APs, optics) is sold to enterprises, service providers and hyperscalers, increasingly bundled with software subscriptions (DNA Center, Catalyst Center, Meraki cloud) and services (technical support, managed services, advisory). Splunk and Webex are pure SaaS / subscription. Security is a hybrid of appliances + software subscriptions.

• Margins: Q2 FY26 GAAP gross margin 65.0%, non-GAAP gross margin 67.5%; Q2 FY26 GAAP operating margin 24.6%, non-GAAP operating margin 34.6%. FY25 non-GAAP gross margin was 67.6% — a multi-decade record helped by software mix and Splunk accretion.
• Moat: very high enterprise switching costs (network gear has 5–10-year refresh cycles tied to certifications, support contracts, training); installed base estimated at hundreds of thousands of enterprise customers; Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) ecosystem creates a captive talent pool.
• Capital return: dividend raised 2% to $0.42 in Feb 2026 (annualised $1.68); $15 bn buyback authorisation top-up Feb 2025 leaving ~$17 bn remaining; in Q2 FY26 alone Cisco repurchased 18 m shares at $76.29 average ($1.4 bn) and returned $3.0 bn total to shareholders.
• Splunk monetisation: Splunk reached 500 new logos in H1 FY26 (on track for ~1,000 in FY26); Splunk ARR and product RPO growing double digits; one of Splunk's largest-ever deals closed in Q1 FY26 with joint Cisco-Splunk sales motion.

Subsidy / regulatory credit dependency: Cisco does not have a material reliance on government subsidies, tax credits or regulatory credits as direct revenue sources. The company is a beneficiary of indirect tailwinds from US Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, BEAD broadband programmes, and CHIPS-Act-funded fab buildouts that drive customer infrastructure spend — but these are not booked as Cisco revenue or credits.

5. Financial Health

Five-year fiscal trend (years ended last Saturday of July, $ billions unless noted):

Metric	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Revenue	49.8	51.6	57.0	53.8	56.7
YoY growth	+1%	+3%	+11%	−6%	+5%
Net income (GAAP)	10.6	11.8	12.6	10.3	10.5
Operating cash flow	15.5	13.2	19.9	10.9	13.3
Free cash flow	~15.0	~12.6	~19.0	~10.2	~12.8
R&D expense	6.5	6.8	7.6	8.0	9.3
Notable events	—	Pandemic supply chain	Backlog unwind	Splunk closed Mar-24; ~9.6 k layoffs	1st full-year w/ Splunk; AI orders >$2 bn

Last five quarters — revenue and non-GAAP gross margin (Cisco discloses non-GAAP gross margin each quarter; this is the closest comparable profitability metric across the period):

Quarter	Period end	Revenue	Product revenue	Non-GAAP gross margin	Non-GAAP EPS
Q2 FY25	25 Jan 2025	$13.99 bn (+9%)	$10.1 bn (+13%)	68.7%	$0.94
Q3 FY25	26 Apr 2025	$14.15 bn (+11%)	$10.4 bn (+15%)	68.6%	$0.96
Q4 FY25	26 Jul 2025	$14.67 bn (+8%)	$10.9 bn (+10%)	67.9%	$0.99
Q1 FY26	25 Oct 2025	$14.88 bn (+8%)	$11.0 bn (+10%)	68.1%	$1.00
Q2 FY26	24 Jan 2026	$15.30 bn (+10%)	$11.6 bn (+14%)	67.5%	$1.04

Balance sheet (most recent — end Q2 FY26): Cash, equivalents and short-term investments ~$16 bn; total debt ~$31 bn (elevated to fund the Splunk close); long-term debt amortising on schedule; total RPO $43.4 bn provides forward visibility. Shares outstanding ~3.95 bn at end Q2 FY26 (down from a peak of ~5 bn pre-buyback programmes thanks to multi-decade repurchases).

6. Valuation & Market Data

Metric	Value (as of 1 May 2026 close)
Share price	$92.92 (close, day's range $89.32–$91.67 on 1 May; new 52-wk high)
Market cap	$362.80 bn
Enterprise value	$378.76 bn
P/E (trailing)	33.04
P/E (forward)	21.44
Price / Sales	6.14
EV / EBITDA	23.25
Price / FCF	29.64
Dividend yield	1.83% (annualised $1.68 vs $92.92)
Quarterly dividend	$0.42 (paid 22 Apr 2026; ex-div 2 Apr 2026)
Beta (5-year)	0.91
Short interest	58.04 m shares (1.47% of float)
Days to cover	2.59 (avg 20-day vol 17.44 m)
Put / call ratio	0.71 (bullish skew)
52-week range	$58.58 (low) — $92.92 (1 May 2026 high)
50-day moving average	$81.72
200-day moving average	$75.06
52-week price change	+59.10%
Shares outstanding	3.95 bn

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

• Cisco Silicon One G300 (announced 17 Feb 2026): 102.4 Tbps switching ASIC for "agentic-era" AI clusters — double the bandwidth of the G200 (51.2 Tbps, 5 nm). Silicon One unifies router and data-centre-switch silicon into a single architecture; multiple top hyperscalers running G200 in production for AI back-end fabrics.
• Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA (expanded March 2026 at NVIDIA GTC): modular reference design combining Cisco Silicon One networking + NVIDIA GPUs + Cisco AI Defense + Hypershield + Splunk Enterprise Security + Hybrid Mesh Firewall. Hypershield runs on Silicon One and NVIDIA BlueField DPUs for inline hardware-level enforcement.
• Galileo Technologies acquisition (announced 9 April 2026): AI-agent observability and evaluation platform; closing expected Q4 FY26. Will plug into Splunk Observability Cloud's existing AI Agent Monitoring; provides hallucination/bias/security/cost evaluation across agentic applications. Price not disclosed.
• Hybrid Mesh Firewall portfolio (Cisco Live San Diego, June 2025): Secure Firewall 6100 series (200 Gbps per RU, cluster capacity 5 Tbps) for AI-ready data centres; 200-series 220 firewall for SMB / SD-WAN branches; Universal Zero-Trust Network Access (Universal ZTNA) platform; Splunk SIEM integrations enriched.
• AI Defense + Hypershield + Splunk integrations: 30 Splunk Technical Add-Ons updated to "gold standard"; XDR alerts feed Splunk Enterprise Security directly; combined telemetry across XDR, AI Defense, Multicloud Defense, Talos and Splunk; Secure Access + XDR + Hypershield + AI Defense added 750 new customers in a single quarter.
• Project Glasswing (announced April 2026): Cisco joined Anthropic's Project Glasswing initiative providing access to Claude Mythos Preview to a coalition of vendors defining how AI resources will be protected from cyber threats.
• Quantum networking R&D: Cisco Quantum Lab is mapping a "practical path to quantum networking in data centres" (research released 7 May 2025); patents filed for QKD key management integrated into network routers; product roadmap includes quantum-resistant cryptography baked into existing networking lines.
• R&D spend: $9.3 bn in FY25 (+16.5% YoY), highest in company history, concentrated in AI networking, silicon design, security and quantum.

8. Competitive Landscape

Cisco competes across four overlapping markets — enterprise/data-centre networking, security, collaboration and observability. The competitive profile differs by segment.

Market	Cisco share	Key competitors & share
Enterprise WLAN (Q1 2025)	~39.5%	HPE Aruba ~15.9%; Juniper Networks ~5.3%; Ubiquiti, Extreme Networks (rest of market)
Worldwide Ethernet switching (Q1 2025)	~30.9%	Arista Networks ~13.9%; HPE/Juniper combined; NVIDIA (Spectrum-X surging)
Data-centre Ethernet switch (3Q 2025)	Top-3 alongside Arista and Accton	Arista #1 overall; Celestica + NVIDIA combined ~50% of AI back-end Ethernet segment
Web conferencing / collaboration (2025)	Webex ~5–9%	Zoom ~28%; Microsoft Teams ~23%; Google Meet ~17%
SIEM (post-Splunk acquisition)	Splunk Top-3 globally	Microsoft Sentinel, IBM QRadar, Palo Alto XSIAM, Elastic, Sumo Logic

Direct competitors by segment: Networking — Arista Networks, Juniper Networks (now part of HPE), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Aruba + Juniper), Huawei, Dell, Extreme Networks, NVIDIA Spectrum-X (AI back-end), Broadcom (silicon). Security — Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Sentinel/Defender, Zscaler, Check Point, IBM QRadar. Collaboration — Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, RingCentral, 8x8. Observability — Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic, Microsoft (Azure Monitor), Grafana, Elastic. Silicon — Broadcom (Tomahawk/Jericho), Marvell, NVIDIA (Spectrum/BlueField).

Competitive impact — AI infrastructure boom: the AI capex surge has been a clear net tailwind for Cisco. Hyperscaler AI orders went from $1.0 bn target in FY25 (delivered >$2 bn) to a raised >$5 bn target in FY26 (already $3.4 bn taken in H1 FY26). Arista has converted faster on share within the AI back-end Ethernet segment, but Cisco has won on breadth (silicon + optics + systems + security stack). NVIDIA Spectrum-X with Spectrum SN5000 switches is the principal new entrant pressuring both Cisco and Arista in AI back-end fabrics; Cisco's response has been to integrate (Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, Hypershield-on-BlueField) rather than confront directly.

China/Huawei restrictions: US export controls on Huawei (in force since 2019, expanded multiple times through 2024) and EU restrictions on Chinese telecom gear continue to be a structural tailwind for Cisco in Europe and selected APJC markets — reflected in Q2 FY26 EMEA revenue +15% YoY.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Executive team:

• Charles "Chuck" Robbins — Chair and CEO. Joined Cisco in 1997; appointed CEO 26 July 2015 (succeeding John Chambers); Chair since December 2017. Estimated net worth ~$158 m (April 2026). Beneficially owns ~671,095 Cisco shares (incl. dividend-equivalent units on deferred and unvested RSUs).
• R. Scott Herren — EVP and Chief Financial Officer; ex-Autodesk CFO.
• Jeetu Patel — President & Chief Product Officer; expanded role post-Splunk; oversees Networking, Security and Collaboration product groups.
• Liz Centoni — EVP, Chief Customer Experience Officer.
• Maria Martinez — EVP and Chief Operating Officer.
• Gary Steele — President of Go-To-Market (joined via Splunk acquisition; ex-Splunk CEO).

Board (as of Dec 2025 AGM): Wesley G. Bush, Michael D. Capellas, Mark Garrett, John D. Harris II, Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, Sarah Rae Murphy, Charles H. Robbins, Daniel H. Schulman, Marianna Tessel.

Ownership: ~76% institutional, ~0.05% insiders, balance retail. Top institutional holders: Vanguard Group ~9.9% (~392.2 m shares, ~$27 bn at current price); BlackRock Inc. ~5.5% (~218.7 m, ~$15 bn); State Street Corp ~5.0%; Geode Capital, Morgan Stanley, FMR (Fidelity), Charles Schwab Investment Management, Invesco, Norges Bank and Bank of America round out the top 10. Combined Vanguard + BlackRock + State Street ~20.3% of shares outstanding.

Recent Form 4 insider transactions:

Date	Insider	Role	Type	Shares	Price	10b5-1?
13 Feb 2026	Charles Robbins	Chair & CEO	Sale (4 transactions)	4,800 + 1,300 + 2,100 + 11,345 = 19,545	$74.12 / $74.85 / $76.03 / $76.92	Yes (plan adopted 6 Mar 2025)
13 Feb 2026	Charles Robbins	Chair & CEO	Post-sale beneficial ownership	671,095.2	—	incl. DEUs
2025 (multiple)	Charles Robbins	Chair & CEO	Pre-planned sales (10b5-1 plan adopted 6 Mar 2025)	Various	~$56–$78	Yes
Dec 2024	Charles Robbins	Chair & CEO	Sale	~847,000 (~$46.9 m gross)	~$55–$58	Yes (prior 10b5-1)

Robbins' selling has been done exclusively through pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plans (most recent plan adopted 6 March 2025). Total gross sales 2024–Feb 2026 are estimated at ~$50 m+ on a base of ~$158 m net worth — consistent with diversification rather than urgency. No discretionary insider purchases by any executive over the trailing 12 months.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Hyperscaler concentration: the $5 bn+ AI infrastructure order pipeline in FY26 is concentrated in a handful of webscale customers (the largest cloud + AI hyperscalers). If any single customer pauses, defers or substitutes (e.g. moves to NVIDIA Spectrum-X / in-house silicon), quarterly variance widens materially.
• Arista, NVIDIA and merchant-silicon competition: Arista took the data-centre Ethernet switch crown in late 2024; NVIDIA passed Cisco and Arista in datacentre Ethernet sales in 2025 with Spectrum-X; Broadcom merchant ASICs (Tomahawk/Jericho) underpin most "white-box" hyperscaler buys that bypass Cisco systems entirely.
• Splunk on-prem-to-cloud transition: Security revenue −4% YoY in Q2 FY26 and −2% in Q1 FY26 reflects Splunk customers shifting from term licences to cloud subscriptions; management expects this to drag through H2 FY26.
• Webex losing collaboration share: Microsoft Teams (~23%) and Zoom (~28%) continue to outpace Webex (~5–9%) globally. AI integration alone is unlikely to reverse the share trajectory in pure SMB segments.
• Stock-based compensation and Splunk integration costs: total debt elevated to ~$31 bn post-Splunk; integration synergies still being booked; goodwill carry from Splunk creates impairment risk if growth disappoints.
• Valuation re-rating: stock at fresh 52-week high $92.92 with trailing P/E 33 (vs FY24 sub-15 trough); EV/EBITDA 23.25; further multiple expansion likely needs another upward AI orders / FY27 guide step-up.
• Geopolitical / China: APJC revenue dependence on enterprise/service-provider buyers in the region; further US-China decoupling, EU "trusted vendor" rules and tariffs could disrupt supply chains and demand.
• Cybersecurity vulnerabilities in own products: April 2026 critical CVE in Cisco Integrated Management Controller out-of-band management requiring patches; ongoing fix cadence in IOS XE, ASA, etc. brand impact when high-severity Cisco-product vulnerabilities surface.
• Capital allocation / M&A risk: Splunk ($28 bn), Galileo (undisclosed price; Q4 FY26), Isovalent, Splunk-pre Robust Intelligence and other deals add execution risk and integration overhead.
• Headcount restructuring fatigue: ~9,600 layoffs in 2024 plus ongoing targeted reductions through 2025/2026 (incl. 221 Milpitas/SF in Oct 2025) signal continuing cost reshaping — could weigh on engineering/sales velocity.

11. Recent Developments

• 1 May 2026 — CSCO closed at $92.92, a fresh 52-week (and multi-year) high; market cap $362.8 bn; trailing 12-month price change +59.1%.
• April 2026 — Cisco joined Anthropic's Project Glasswing initiative providing access to Claude Mythos Preview for a vendor coalition defining AI cyber-defence standards; critical Cisco IMC out-of-band management CVE patched.
• 22 April 2026 — $0.42/share quarterly dividend paid (record date 2 Apr; ex-div 2 Apr 2026).
• 9 April 2026 — Announced intent to acquire Galileo Technologies (AI agent observability and evaluation) to extend Splunk Observability Cloud's AI Agent Monitoring; closing expected Q4 FY26; price not disclosed.
• 17 March 2026 — NVIDIA GTC: expanded Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA — AI Defense and Hypershield can now tap NVIDIA AI; Hypershield runs on Silicon One + NVIDIA BlueField DPUs for inline hardware-level enforcement.
• 17 February 2026 — Announced Silicon One G300 (102.4 Tbps switching ASIC) and new optics for "agentic-era" AI data centres — doubles G200 bandwidth.
• 13 February 2026 — CEO Chuck Robbins sold 19,545 shares in 4 tranches (10b5-1 plan adopted 6 Mar 2025) at $74.12–$76.92; post-sale beneficial ownership 671,095.2 shares.
• 11 February 2026 — Q2 FY26 results: revenue $15.3 bn (+10%); GAAP EPS $0.80 (+31%); non-GAAP EPS $1.04 (+11%); Networking $8.3 bn (+21%); $2.1 bn AI hyperscaler orders (matched FY25 full-year); FY26 guidance raised to $61.2–$61.7 bn revenue / $4.13–$4.17 non-GAAP EPS; dividend raised 2% to $0.42; $1.4 bn buybacks at $76.29 average; $3.0 bn returned to shareholders.
• 16 December 2025 — 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders held virtually; nine directors re-elected including Robbins, Bush, Capellas, Garrett, Harris, Johnson, Murphy, Schulman, Tessel.
• 12 November 2025 — Q1 FY26 results: revenue $14.88 bn (+8%); non-GAAP EPS $1.00; non-GAAP net income $4.0 bn; Networking $7.8 bn (+15%); AI hyperscaler orders $1.3 bn (balanced Silicon One systems and optics); Splunk closed one of its largest-ever deals via joint Cisco-Splunk sales motion; mid-teens demand growth in next-gen firewalls.
• 13 August 2025 — Q4 FY25 / FY25 results: Q4 revenue $14.7 bn (+8%); FY25 revenue $56.7 bn (+5%); FY25 AI infrastructure orders >$2 bn (vs $1 bn original target); Splunk delivered +14% YoY new logos in Q4 via joint sales; Security +9% (Splunk + SASE), Observability +4% (Splunk + ThousandEyes).
• June 2025 — Cisco Live San Diego: launched Hybrid Mesh Firewall portfolio (6100 + 200 series), Universal ZTNA, Hypershield on Silicon One + NVIDIA BlueField, expanded Splunk SIEM integrations.
• February 2025 — $15 bn buyback authorisation top-up announced (to ~$17 bn remaining); dividend raised 3% to $0.41/share.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• 13 May 2026 (Wednesday) — Q3 FY26 earnings release after market close (period ended 25 April 2026); conference call 1:30 pm PT / 4:30 pm ET / 9:30 pm BST. Livestreamed on YouTube and LinkedIn.
• ~Early July 2026 — Next quarterly $0.42 dividend ex-div / record / payment cycle.
• ~Mid-August 2026 — Q4 FY26 / FY26 full-year earnings (period ending ~25 July 2026).
• ~Q4 FY26 (by ~25 July 2026) — Galileo Technologies acquisition close expected.
• ~December 2026 — 2026 Virtual Annual Meeting of Stockholders (typically held mid-December).
• June 2026 (typical) — Cisco Live US 2026 (annual customer + partner conference).
• Q3 FY27 (May 2027) — Silicon One G300 systems initial-shipment milestones.

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