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World's largest networking equipment maker, selling switches, routers, security and collaboration/software products for enterprises and service providers.
World's largest networking equipment maker, selling switches, routers, security and collaboration/software products for enterprises and service providers.
Sells networking hardware, security products and software, increasingly as subscriptions, so a growing share of revenue recurs. Most sales go through channel partners and distributors. The 2024 purchase of Splunk added data-analysis software.
Moat: narrow (installed base, switching costs, scale). Massive installed base of networking gear and long-standing enterprise IT relationships create real switching costs.
Headquarters: San Jose, California, United States · Founded: 1984 · Employees: 82,400
Size Cisco (CSCO) is a United States Information Technology company (Telecommunications Equipment) with a market value of $369B, the 27th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $93.85 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 2.8%, against -17.0% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 7th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 11.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.2%); the operating margin is 25.2% (peer median 8.3%).
Valuation It trades at 18.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 19.2× (10th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 15% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +10 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 9.7 points above its cost of capital (9.5% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $46.7B at 25 Jul 2026, up 7% on a year earlier — 0.7 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Cisco has 13 bonds outstanding ($21.5B), rated AA- by the agencies and trading like A+ at a weighted spread of 62 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 1.5% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 12 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $63.3B | $63.3B | $56.7B | $53.8B | $57.0B |
| Revenue growth | — | +12% | +5% | -6% | — |
| Gross profit | $40.2B | $40.4B | $36.2B | $34.1B | $35.9B |
| EBITDA | $18.5B | $18.5B | $15.3B | $15.4B | $17.3B |
| Net income | $13.3B | $13.3B | $10.2B | $10.3B | $12.6B |
| Free cash flow | $12.8B | $12.8B | $13.3B | $10.2B | $19.0B |
| Capital expenditure | $1.41B | $1.41B | $905M | $670M | $849M |
| Total debt | $31.2B | $31.2B | $29.6B | $32.2B | $9.41B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco CSCO | $369B | -3% | +12% | 25% | 18.4× | 15.0% |
| Arista Networks ANET | $215B | +20% | +41% | 44% | 30.4× | 29.8% |
| Palo Alto Networks PANW | $257B | +51% | +24% | 5% | 75.0× | n/a |
| Fortinet FTNT | $87.3B | +4% | +20% | 33% | 31.6× | 22.4% |
| Extreme Networks EXTR | $3.15B | 0% | +11% | 6% | 17.2× | 27.3% |
| Zoom Communications ZM | $26.2B | -18% | +5% | 24% | 14.7× | 5.8% |
| Ciena CIEN | $34.5B | -56% | +33% | 14% | 23.4× | 29.0% |
| Nokia NOKIA.HE | $44.3B | -37% | +4% | 14% | 19.2× | 17.4% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | CSCO | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -18.3% | -4.4% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -2.8% | -17.0% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -28.0% | -33.2% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +11.8% | +9.2% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 25.2% | 8.3% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 18.4× | 19.2× | 10th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 15.0% | 17.5% | 6th least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.9% | +7.8% | 4th lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +10.1 pp | +11.8 pp | 7th least demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +9.7 pp | +4.2 pp | 9th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 20.8× | 24.5× | 5th cheapest of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.8× | -0.3× | 3rd most indebted of 10 |
| Bond spread | 62 bp | 103 bp | 2nd tightest of 7 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco CSCO | United States | $369B | -3% | +12% | 25% | 18.4× | 15.0% | +4.9% |
| Foxconn Industrial Internet 601138.SS | China | $120B | -35% | +60% | 5% | 13.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Xiaomi-w 1810.HK | Hong Kong | $99.0B | -2% | +6% | 3% | 27.8× | 24.3% | +12.4% |
| Motorola Solutions MSI | United States | $85.1B | +34% | +10% | 25% | 27.0× | 16.4% | +9.5% |
| Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology 002415.SZ | China | $49.1B | -3% | +8% | 19% | 17.5× | 2.6% | +7.8% |
| Nokia NOKIA.HE | Finland | $44.3B | -37% | +4% | 14% | 19.2× | 17.4% | -1.9% |
| Ubiquiti UI | United States | $35.9B | -30% | +27% | 36% | 33.5× | 22.2% | +11.5% |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson ERIC-A.ST | Sweden | $34.9B | -9% | -4% | 14% | 17.3× | -8.7% | +0.4% |
| Ciena CIEN | United States | $34.5B | -56% | +33% | 14% | 23.4× | 29.0% | +6.2% |
| Apple AAPL | United States | $4.98T | +17% | +15% | 33% | 36.8× | 19.0% | +5.5% |
| Accton Technology 2345.TW | Taiwan | $21.6B | -49% | +82% | 14% | 12.5× | 4.5% | +35.4% |
| ZTE 0763.HK | Hong Kong | $19.0B | -27% | +20% | 1% | 14.6× | 17.5% | +4.9% |
| ZTE 000063.SZ | China | $19.0B | -23% | +14% | 1% | 24.2× | 19.0% | +5.6% |
| TCL Technology 000100.SZ | China | $15.0B | +7% | +5% | 0% | 13.1× | -4.7% | +19.1% |
| Huaqin 603296.SS | China | $12.7B | -13% | +28% | 2% | 17.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Shenzhen Transsion 688036.SS | China | $11.6B | +13% | -1% | 5% | 21.8× | n/a | n/a |
| China Spacesat 600118.SS | China | $9.75B | -46% | +6% | 1% | 531.4× | n/a | n/a |
| ViaSat VSAT | United States | $8.81B | -9% | +1% | 2% | n/a | 42.8% | +15.5% |
| Yealink Network Technology 300628.SZ | China | $7.50B | +8% | +17% | 46% | 16.2× | 4.3% | +17.0% |
| Zhejiang Dahua Technology 002236.SZ | China | $7.04B | -21% | +7% | 7% | 12.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Shenzhen Sunway Communication 300136.SZ | China | $6.14B | -54% | +2% | 9% | 47.1× | 30.6% | +6.9% |
Cisco has 13 bonds outstanding with $21.5B face value. The agencies rate it AA-; its bonds trade like A+. Weighted yield 5.39%, a spread of 62 bp over government bonds.
Cisco reported $46.7B of remaining performance obligations at 25 Jul 2026, up 7% from a year earlier and up 8% from the previous quarter. That is 0.7 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.19.