A particular kind of pressure comes from performing well. Cisco Systems (CSCO) built it for itself. After a fiscal third quarter that blew past its own guidance, the company is now walking into its fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 report, due in the coming weeks, with expectations it essentially wrote.
Artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending is pouring into Cisco's order book, enterprises are in the thick of a campus networking refresh cycle, and routing demand hasn't cooled off. Then there's Cisco's growing push into AI-powered security and observability. It's a signal that the company is expanding its stake in the infrastructure that makes AI work. Further, both revenue and EPS posted double-digit growth, and the company beat estimates on both lines.
