Citi analysts have opened a positive catalyst watch on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) as they expect the IT giant to outperform peers Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) and Juniper (NYSE:JNPR).
They believe that strong Enterprise demand will likely fuel upside to results for Cisco’s July quarter. Cisco is due to report on Wednesday, August 16.
“Cisco should benefit from its heavy Enterprise exposure (Enterprise and Commercial 50%+ of sales) where peers saw upside. Cisco’s total product sales excollaboration/Internet show decent correlation with Juniper’s enterprise sales (R2 ~0.4),” the analysts said in a client note.
“On security, read from Fortinet’s Jun-Q results (R2 ~0.8) implies 4% Y/Y growth. Moreover, with low Cloud SP exposure (mid-single digits), Cisco will likely avoid significant downside from the shift from traditional networking spend to AI investments vs peers, in our view.”
Despite getting more bullish in the near term, the analysts continue to rate CSCO stock with a Neutral rating and a $54 per share price target, which implies an upside potential of just 1%.