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Cisco Systems (CSCO) Competitors

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$70.63 +0.36 (+0.51%)
Closing price 10/24/2025 04:00 PM Eastern
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$70.63 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 10/24/2025 07:59 PM Eastern
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CSCO vs. GOOG, GOOGL, MSFT, NVDA, PANW, ZM, ANET, DELL, HPE, and IBM

Should you be buying Cisco Systems stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Cisco Systems include Alphabet (GOOG), Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Zoom Communications (ZM), Arista Networks (ANET), Dell Technologies (DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and International Business Machines (IBM). These companies are all part of the "computer and technology" sector.

Cisco Systems vs. Its Competitors

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Alphabet has a net margin of 31.12% compared to Cisco Systems' net margin of 18.45%. Alphabet's return on equity of 34.31% beat Cisco Systems' return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Cisco Systems18.45% 27.06% 10.20%
Alphabet 31.12%34.31%24.88%

Cisco Systems has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alphabet has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

73.3% of Cisco Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of Alphabet shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Cisco Systems shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of Alphabet shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Cisco Systems currently has a consensus price target of $74.72, indicating a potential upside of 5.79%. Alphabet has a consensus price target of $249.68, indicating a potential downside of 4.16%. Given Cisco Systems' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cisco Systems is more favorable than Alphabet.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Cisco Systems
0 Sell rating(s)
10 Hold rating(s)
13 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.63
Alphabet
3 Sell rating(s)
5 Hold rating(s)
21 Buy rating(s)
6 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.86

Alphabet has higher revenue and earnings than Cisco Systems. Cisco Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alphabet, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Cisco Systems$56.65B4.93$10.18B$2.6226.96
Alphabet$371.40B8.48$100.12B$9.3927.74

Cisco Systems pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Alphabet pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Cisco Systems pays out 62.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alphabet pays out 8.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cisco Systems has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Alphabet has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Cisco Systems is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

In the previous week, Alphabet had 169 more articles in the media than Cisco Systems. MarketBeat recorded 220 mentions for Alphabet and 51 mentions for Cisco Systems. Cisco Systems' average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Alphabet's score of 1.07 indicating that Cisco Systems is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Cisco Systems
46 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Alphabet
161 Very Positive mention(s)
13 Positive mention(s)
25 Neutral mention(s)
14 Negative mention(s)
2 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Summary

Alphabet beats Cisco Systems on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CSCO and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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CSCO vs. The Competition

MetricCisco SystemsCOMP IndustryComputer SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$277.79B$21.96B$33.06B$10.67B
Dividend Yield2.33%2.33%3.18%4.82%
P/E Ratio26.9617.19103.6930.16
Price / Sales4.932.301,287.44133.57
Price / Cash18.4219.1638.0861.44
Price / Book5.966.387.576.60
Net Income$10.18B$701.13M$820.47M$276.82M
7 Day Performance0.71%1.05%2.51%2.58%
1 Month Performance4.10%3.92%3.70%3.76%
1 Year Performance26.71%2,439,673.16%24,146.19%33.84%

Cisco Systems Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
CSCO
Cisco Systems
4.9103 of 5 stars
$70.63
+0.5%
$74.72
+5.8%
+26.2%$277.79B$56.65B26.9686,200Positive News
GOOG
Alphabet
4.6768 of 5 stars
$252.30
-1.8%
$246.26
-2.4%
+58.3%$3.06T$350.02B26.93190,200Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
GOOGL
Alphabet
3.9723 of 5 stars
$251.55
-2.0%
$257.60
+2.4%
+59.7%$3.05T$350.02B26.85183,323Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
MSFT
Microsoft
4.9829 of 5 stars
$516.16
-0.1%
$618.97
+19.9%
+23.3%$3.84T$281.72B37.84228,000Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
NVDA
NVIDIA
4.869 of 5 stars
$181.20
-0.8%
$222.23
+22.6%
+32.7%$4.40T$130.50B51.6436,000Trending News
Analyst Forecast
Insider Trade
PANW
Palo Alto Networks
3.9402 of 5 stars
$214.34
+1.2%
$217.22
+1.3%
+19.1%$143.50B$9.22B133.6616,068Positive News
ZM
Zoom Communications
4.464 of 5 stars
$83.71
+2.2%
$91.74
+9.6%
+16.0%$25.32B$4.67B22.087,412Analyst Forecast
Insider Trade
ANET
Arista Networks
4.7398 of 5 stars
$145.97
-0.3%
$163.94
+12.3%
+56.1%$183.50B$7.00B57.424,412Positive News
Insider Trade
Gap Up
DELL
Dell Technologies
4.9268 of 5 stars
$150.45
+1.7%
$161.26
+7.2%
+31.6%$101.19B$101.45B22.13108,000Trending News
Ex-Dividend
Analyst Forecast
HPE
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
4.6475 of 5 stars
$23.32
+2.0%
$25.50
+9.3%
+21.2%$30.75B$30.13B28.4261,000Analyst Forecast
Gap Up
High Trading Volume
IBM
International Business Machines
4.4494 of 5 stars
$283.67
+0.0%
$289.08
+1.9%
+41.0%$263.75B$62.75B46.07293,400Trending News
Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision

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This page (NASDAQ:CSCO) was last updated on 10/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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