Evercore ISI has reaffirmed an Outperform rating on Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and held to a $100 price target following the networking company’s recent AI Summit. That target represents approximately 23% upside versus a quoted share price of $81.16, with the stock trading close to its 52-week high of $83.25 and returning 38.78% over the last 12 months.
In its post-summit analysis, Evercore highlighted Cisco’s standing within the Communications Equipment industry and noted the company’s substantial market capitalization of $321.54 billion as context for its competitive reach. The firm said Cisco is particularly well placed to tackle several of the principal bottlenecks impeding enterprise AI deployments, including infrastructure capacity constraints, trust and security issues, and gaps in training data.
Evercore pointed to specific elements of Cisco’s hardware and optical portfolio as enablers for AI infrastructure transitions. The firm cited Cisco’s Silicon One product family - including G200 and P200-based systems - alongside Acacia optics as technologies that help move AI deployments away from copper connections toward higher-performance optical connectivity.
According to Evercore, infrastructure limitations remain the dominant obstacle to broader AI adoption. Memory supply is expected to be constrained through at least 2028 as newer GPUs demand increasingly dense high-bandwidth memory (HBM). In addition, Evercore identified power availability and thermal management as rising constraints that could shape deployment architectures and data center design choices.
On security, the firm emphasized Cisco’s approach of embedding trust and security capabilities directly into its product portfolio rather than layering them on as separate wraparound solutions. Evercore suggested that this integration could be an advantage as enterprises seek secure, trusted platforms for AI workloads.
Evercore also noted a set of recent corporate moves that reinforce Cisco’s strategic focus on AI and related infrastructure. The company has launched the Cisco 360 Partner Program to accelerate AI readiness through its partner ecosystem, with initiatives targeting AI-ready data centers, future-proofed workplaces, and digital resilience. Shareholders approved an amendment to Cisco’s 2005 Stock Incentive Plan that increases the authorized shares for issuance by 57,490,000; the plan will remain in effect until the 2030 annual meeting unless re-adopted or extended.
Beyond programmatic and equity actions, Cisco Investments has put capital into World Labs Technologies, a spatial intelligence AI startup aimed at advancing Large World Models. Separately, Cisco is teaming with IBM on a project to construct a network of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, combining IBM’s quantum computing expertise with Cisco’s networking capabilities and targeting an initial demonstration within five years.
Taken together, Evercore’s commentary and the company’s announced initiatives underline Cisco’s push to be a central supplier to the AI infrastructure ecosystem, addressing connectivity, security, and partner readiness while navigating the broader constraints that may limit how quickly enterprises can deploy advanced AI systems.