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Cisco Systems

CSCO on Nasdaq. Cisco Systems sells hardware, software, and services for networks to businesses and governments. Market value $444.8bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to July 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to July 2026.

Should I look at this?

Good business, but not cheap right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See cheaper Technology stocks on the list

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to July 2026
2.7%low

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $2.75 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to July 2026
31.7×full

You pay 31.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to July 2026
16.7%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 17 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 99 of 100. Price score: 31 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$117.94 a share, 77% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $66.81 to $130.37.

Dividend: 1.4% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

12.7
19.0
10.2
13.3
12.8
20222023202420252026
Revenue
$51.6bn$57.0bn$53.8bn$56.7bn$63.3bn
Operating margin
27.1%26.4%22.6%20.8%24.3%
Debt to equity
0.240.190.680.600.59
Shares outstanding
4.08bn4.03bn3.96bn3.94bn3.94bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt0.59× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 4.9% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 3% fewer since 2022

The quarter to July 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $17.3 billion last quarter, up 18% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $3.9 billion, up 51% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 24 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 21 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $12.8 billion, down from $13.3 billion.
  • Debt is $22.3 billion more than cash, up from $19.7 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
October 2024$13.8bn
January 2025$14.0bn
April 2025$14.1bn
July 2025$14.7bn
October 2025$14.9bn
January 2026$15.3bn
April 2026$15.8bn
July 2026$17.3bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
October 2024$2.7bn
January 2025$2.4bn
April 2025$2.5bn
July 2025$2.5bn
October 2025$2.9bn
January 2026$3.2bn
April 2026$3.4bn
July 2026$3.9bn

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
12 November 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
2 September 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
18 August 2026

Who owns it

23 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 22 last quarter. 4,068 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

2 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 10 sold $106m, $103m of it under preset trading plans.

  • Subaiya Thimaya K.
    EVP, Operations
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 September 2026
    Shares
    312
    Price
    $110.18
    Value
    $34,376
  • Tuszik Oliver
    EVP, Global Sales
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 September 2026
    Shares
    680
    Price
    $110.18
    Value
    $74,922
  • Patterson Mark
    EVP and CFO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    11 September 2026
    Shares
    1,795
    Price
    $108.87
    Value
    $195,422
  • Fink Nichlas A
    SVP, Chief Accounting Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    8 September 2026
    Shares
    2,274
    Price
    $109.36
    Value
    $248,685
  • Subaiya Thimaya K.
    EVP, Operations
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    19 August 2026
    Shares
    5,832
    Price
    $111.47
    Value
    $650,074
  • Patel Jeetendra I
    President and CPO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    7,170
    Price
    $111.57
    Value
    $799,928
  • Tuszik Oliver
    EVP, Global Sales
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    2,760
    Price
    $112.46
    Value
    $310,390
  • Patterson Mark
    EVP and CFO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    5,192
    Price
    $111.51
    Value
    $578,979
  • Stahlkopf Deborah L
    EVP and Chief Legal Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    6,487
    Price
    $111.53
    Value
    $723,494
  • Robbins Charles
    Chair and CEO, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    21,628
    Price
    $111.54
    Value
    $2m

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 2 Sep 2026, and no later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • It isn't cheap on profits: 31.7× operating profit.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.