Over the past three months, Cisco Systems shares have climbed 7.7%, outpacing the broader networking equipment sector and reflecting renewed investor confidence in the company’s AI‐related offerings and security portfolio. This rally has been driven by strong demand for Cisco’s Catalyst and Nexus switches optimized for AI workloads, as well as accelerating sales of its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and zero-trust security solutions. Analyst upgrades from three major Wall Street firms have highlighted Cisco’s improving gross margins—up 150 basis points year-over-year in the latest quarter—and its ability to convert rising software and subscription revenue into higher operating cash flow.

Cisco’s security business reported mid-teens percentage growth in recurring revenue during the December quarter, led by its SecureX platform and Umbrella cloud security services. The company announced that more than 2,500 enterprise customers have migrated to Cisco’s integrated Secure Access Service Edge model since its launch in early 2025, contributing to a 20% year-over-year increase in software and security subscription billings. Management highlighted that enterprise CIOs are prioritizing unified network-security architectures, a trend that has bolstered Cisco’s backlog, which reached a record $11 billion at the end of fiscal Q2.

During its December earnings call, Cisco raised its full-year fiscal 2026 guidance, forecasting low‐double-digit percentage growth in revenue and a mid‐single-digit expansion in non-GAAP operating margin. The updated outlook reflects Cisco’s strategy to shift its product mix toward higher-margin software and services, which now account for approximately 48% of total revenue. Management reiterated its commitment to returning capital to shareholders, projecting roughly $7 billion in share repurchases and $6 billion in dividends for the year.

Cisco will host its second annual AI Summit on February 3, 2026, in San Francisco and via global livestream. The event, led by Chair & CEO Chuck Robbins and President & Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel, will feature fireside chats with key figures shaping the AI economy, including NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and AWS’s Matt Garman. Sessions will explore AI infrastructure, governance, workforce transformation and the intersection of networking and compute. Cisco expects more than 20,000 virtual attendees and plans to highlight new AI-powered features in its intent-based networking portfolio and security platforms, underscoring the company’s vision of network-as-AI-platform.