CSCO vs. QCOM, PANW, MSI, FFIV, JNPR, CIEN, IDCC, SATS, CALX, and EXTR
Should you be buying Cisco Systems stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Cisco Systems include QUALCOMM (QCOM), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Motorola Solutions (MSI), F5 (FFIV), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Ciena (CIEN), InterDigital (IDCC), EchoStar (SATS), Calix (CALX), and Extreme Networks (EXTR). These companies are all part of the "communications equipment" industry.
Cisco Systems vs.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) and QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, community ranking, earnings and profitability.
Cisco Systems currently has a consensus target price of $68.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.01%. QUALCOMM has a consensus target price of $189.88, indicating a potential upside of 21.96%. Given QUALCOMM's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe QUALCOMM is more favorable than Cisco Systems.
In the previous week, Cisco Systems had 10 more articles in the media than QUALCOMM. MarketBeat recorded 71 mentions for Cisco Systems and 61 mentions for QUALCOMM. Cisco Systems' average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat QUALCOMM's score of 0.99 indicating that Cisco Systems is being referred to more favorably in the media.
QUALCOMM has a net margin of 25.94% compared to Cisco Systems' net margin of 16.96%. QUALCOMM's return on equity of 39.51% beat Cisco Systems' return on equity.
Cisco Systems pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. QUALCOMM pays an annual dividend of $3.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Cisco Systems pays out 66.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. QUALCOMM pays out 36.3% 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 raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and QUALCOMM has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years.
73.3% of Cisco Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.3% of QUALCOMM shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Cisco Systems shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of QUALCOMM shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Cisco Systems has higher revenue and earnings than QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cisco Systems, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Cisco Systems received 176 more outperform votes than QUALCOMM when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 77.19% of users gave QUALCOMM an outperform vote while only 73.01% of users gave Cisco Systems an outperform vote.
Cisco Systems has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QUALCOMM has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
QUALCOMM beats Cisco Systems on 11 of the 21 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 {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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This page (NASDAQ:CSCO) was last updated on 6/10/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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