CSCO Stock Eyes Best Day In 24 Years As Strong Results Put Spotlight On AI Plumbing

• Cisco reported $1.9 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers, compared with $600 million in the year prior.
• Analysts and retail investors said Cisco’s role in the AI infrastructure bailout in undeniable.
• Stocktwits sentiment for CSCO was ‘extremely bullish.’ 

Cisco shares gained gained 18.6% in early premarket trading on Thursday, after the networking company reported fiscal third-quarter revenue and profit above analysts’ expectations and raised its forecasts for its financial year, which would end in July 2026.

If the move stays in the regular trading session, it would be CSCO's best performance since May 2002.

Massive orders for Cisco networking equipment from hyperscale, which are building new data centers at a breakneck pace, boosted the company's Q3 performance.

“$CSCO shows that AI infrastructure needs networking, security, observability, and operating discipline at scale, and Cisco is now putting numbers behind that position,” Patrick Moorhead, Chief Analyst at Moor Insights, said on X.

“The question from here is how much of the AI networking demand broadens beyond hyperscalers and into enterprise, sovereign, and cloud-adjacent buildouts. That is what I am watching next.”

Retail View On CSCO

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for CSCO climbed to nearly the highest possible level, ‘extremely bullish’ (99/100), and 24-message volume jumped over 1,700%.

A trader said CSCO would be “re-rated as (an) AI stock.” Another wrote: “Great time to own a boatload of this (Cisco stock) and see them providing the plumbing for AI infrastructure. Keep going Chuck! Buy some more Astrix type companies… put this company back amongst the hyper scalers.”

“4 billion extra revenue to hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, etc. AI buildout doesn’t happen without cisco is all this says,” another trader said.

Over the past year, the company has rolled out a series of products and software targeting AI data centers, a fast-growing segment of the market.

The efforts span hardware (chips), software (AgenticOps, IQ, AI agents), and ecosystem partnerships, indicating a shift from traditional networking toward full-stack, AI-ready infrastructure and operational tooling.

CSCO Q3 Earnings Recap

Revenue rose 12% to $15.84 billion, beating analysts’ estimate for $15.56 billion and its own guidance for up to $15.6 billion. The company reported $1.9 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers, compared with $600 million in the year prior. Year-to-date orders from hyperscalers have already exceeded the $5 billion target Cisco had set for all of fiscal 2026.

Profit in the quarter jumped to $3.37 billion, up from $2.49 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

Cisco now expects $62.8 billion to $63 billion in revenue this fiscal year, which ends in late July,  up from a forecast in February for $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion. Profit is expected to be $3.16 to $3.21 a share, up from $3 to $3.08 previously projected, Cisco said.

As of their last close, Cisco shares had gained over 33% year to date.

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