Cisco (CSCO) Tops Estimates at $0.99, Logs $800M in AI Orders as Shares Rise 19% YTD

Cisco (CSCO) eked out a slim beat on the quarter and put out guidance that basically lines up with what Wall Street had penciled in. Nothing dramatic, but enough to keep the stock from rolling over.

Here's the scorecard: adjusted EPS came in at $0.99 versus the street's $0.98 estimate. Revenue was $14.67 billion versus $14.62 billion expected - a 7.6% year-over-year lift. Net income jumped to $2.82 billion (71 cents a share) from $2.16 billion (54 cents) a year earlier.

For the coming fiscal quarter Cisco's range is $0.97-$0.99 in adjusted EPS with revenue guidance of $14.65 billion to $14.85 billion. For the full fiscal 2026 year Cisco forecast $4.00-$4.06 in adjusted EPS and $59 billion-$60 billion in revenue. Those ranges sit essentially on top of consensus (LSEG had $4.03 and $59.53 billion).

Two operational datapoints stood out. Networking revenue hit $7.63 billion, up 12% - comfortably above StreetAccount's $7.34 billion target. Security, however, underperformed expectations: $1.95 billion, up 9% but shy of the $2.11 billion estimate.

CFO Mark Patterson described the macro picture plainly: "While we have some clarity on tariffs, we are still operating in a complex environment." Short sentence, big implication - trade policy remains a variable.

AI continues to be Cisco's storyline. CEO Chuck Robbins said web-scale customers placed about $800 million in AI infrastructure orders during the quarter, and fiscal 2025 AI-related orders topped $2 billion - more than double the company's internal goal. Roughly $1 billion of that was for back-end networking that links GPUs. Robbins also said enterprise AI infrastructure pipeline sits in the "hundreds of millions." His takeaway: "I don't feel like AI's a fleeting trend."

Cisco also flagged collaborations with big financial and tech players on AI infrastructure projects, and rolled out switches and routers aimed at carrying AI workloads - an obvious push to monetize the edge-to-core networking lift that AI deployments need. BlackRock (BLK) and Microsoft (MSFT) were named as participants in related initiatives.

On the market front, Cisco shares have climbed about 19% year-to-date at the close on Wednesday, versus roughly a 10% gain for the S&P 500. So the stock's run this year is notable even if this quarter's results were just barely ahead of expectations.

No fireworks, but a steady beat, AI order momentum and guidance that doesn't force analysts to rework models. Want a clean takeaway? Cisco's numbers keep the company in the conversation for infrastructure plays tied to AI - and that $800 million quarterly AI orders figure is one to watch next quarter.