BNP Paribas Trims Position in Cisco Systems, Inc. $CSCO

BNP Paribas lowered its stake in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO – Free Report) by 37.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 278,974 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after selling 165,601 shares during the period. Cisco Systems makes up approximately 0.9% of BNP Paribas’ portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $32,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CSCO. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Cisco Systems in the 2nd quarter worth about $42,129,647,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 195,521,161 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $15,060,995,000 after purchasing an additional 1,057,962 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 75,326,258 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,802,382,000 after acquiring an additional 206,352 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cisco Systems by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 59,836,782 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $4,609,227,000 after buying an additional 6,224,062 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the 4th quarter worth about $4,473,272,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Cisco launched a Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio in Canada and expanded its Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA and Supermicro. The offerings target enterprises, neocloud providers and sovereign-cloud customers seeking integrated AI compute, cooling and networking infrastructure.

Morgan Stanley maintained a $135 price target, citing Cisco’s potential supply advantage through TSMC as shortages continue to affect the AI infrastructure market. This supports the view that Cisco may be positioned to benefit from strong AI networking demand.

Cisco’s NVIDIA partnership is also linked to the industry’s shift toward liquid-cooled, high-density AI systems, potentially expanding the company’s role in the broader AI infrastructure buildout.

Analysts comparing Cisco with Hewlett Packard Enterprise highlighted Cisco’s strong hyperscaler AI orders, networking growth and expanding security business as long-term competitive advantages.

Cisco gave all approximately 90,000 employees access to personal AI agents, demonstrating broad internal adoption of AI, though the immediate financial impact is unclear.

A growth-stock analysis questioned whether Cisco can sustain enough growth to support its premium valuation, reviving concerns that enthusiasm surrounding AI networking may have outpaced underlying fundamentals. With a P/E ratio above 30, the stock may be particularly sensitive to any slowdown in growth expectations.

Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $125.00 to $...