Cisco’s Forecast Beats the Bearish Retail Crowd. Here’s the Target

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has softly go 1 of the astir compelling AI infrastructure plays successful the market, adjacent arsenic retail chatter has turned sour.

The institution conscionable posted grounds quarterly gross of $15.8 billion, raised full-year guidance, and told investors it present expects to publication $9 cardinal successful AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers successful FY26. Yet Reddit sentiment sits firmly bearish. Our proprietary exemplary sides with management.

The 24/7 Wall St. terms people for Cisco is $133.66, implying 13.79% upside from the existent $117.46. Our proposal is buy, with assurance astatine 90%.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary

The Stock Has Nearly Doubled Since April

Cisco is up 54.12% twelvemonth to day and 73.17% implicit the past year, though shares person cooled 3.05% implicit the past week and commercialized astir 10% disconnected the 52-week precocious of $130.37.

The catalyst was the May 13 net release, wherever CSCO delivered its 4th consecutive EPS bushed astatine $1.06 and gross maturation of 11.96% twelvemonth implicit year. The banal jumped 13.41% connected net day. Networking gross surged 25%, and full merchandise orders climbed 35%. Management raised FY26 gross guidance to $62.8 cardinal to $63 cardinal and EPS to $4.27 to $4.29.

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The Case for $140+

The bull lawsuit rests connected AI infrastructure durability. CFO Mark Patterson told analysts "it's tenable to expect we volition admit astatine slightest $6 cardinal of gross successful FY '27" from hyperscale AI alone. Acacia optics orders topped $1 cardinal successful Q3, and Cisco booked 5 caller Silicon One plan wins with hyperscalers.

CEO Chuck Robbins said "Cisco is well-positioned arsenic the captious infrastructure for the AI era." Enterprise information halfway switching orders jumped implicit 40%, and nationalist assemblage orders roseate 27%. Our bull script points to $140.03, a 19.22% return.