We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience.
This includes personalizing content and advertising.
By pressing "Accept All" or closing out of this banner, you consent to the use of all cookies and similar technologies and the sharing of information they collect with third parties.
You can reject marketing cookies by pressing "Deny Optional," but we still use essential, performance, and functional cookies.
In addition, whether you "Accept All," Deny Optional," click the X or otherwise continue to use the site, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, revised from time to time.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
Cisco Expands AI Agentic Security Portfolio: Will the Tech Deliver?
Read MoreHide Full Article
Key Takeaways
Cisco expands identity, IAM, and AI defense tools to support and secure agentic AI in enterprises.
CSCO reported security revenues fell 4% to $2.01B, but new AI and SASE tools aim to drive recovery.
Cisco faces rising competition from Fortinet and Okta, both advancing AI-powered security offerings.
Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) is preparing for a future where AI agents become a major workforce inside enterprises. Agentic agents do not just answer questions; they take actions like managing systems, analyzing data and even making decisions. To support this shift, Cisco extends Zero Trust Access to agents with agent discovery in Cisco Identity Intelligence, agent Identity and Access Management (“IAM”) in Duo, and model context protocol policy enforcement and adaptive risk protection in Secure Access security service edge.
Cisco’s Agent Identity Management helps enterprises register agents in Duo IAM and map them to accountable human owners. This ensures every agent has a verified identity and enables traceability of actions. Meanwhile, Cisco Identity Intelligence discovers agentic and non-human identities to help organizations understand existing AI usage. Cisco is expanding AI Defense with powerful new tools that help organizations test, trust and secure their AI agents and the interactions between them. This solution is expected to address Agentic AI security issues that traditional scanning tools fail to detect.
Cisco’s Security revenues dropped 4% year over year to $2.01 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. An expanding portfolio is driving clientele, which is expected to help the business recover. At Cisco Live Amsterdam, the company unveiled major AI defense and SASE advancements to help secure organizations as AI agents enter the workforce. Cisco SASE has launched a new semantic inspection engine that can evaluate the intent of Agentic interactions and block sophisticated, context-dependent threats. The company made AgenticOps the operating model for AI-driven IT to enable autonomous troubleshooting, continuous optimization and trusted validation.
Cisco is infusing security into the core of Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA. This helps enterprises safeguard their AI platforms and services not only from external threats but from rogue agent behavior. Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall delivers consistent security policies across a diverse set of enforcement points, including network switches, workload agents and more.
CSCO Faces Tough Competition in the Security Domain
Cisco is facing stiff competition from Fortinet (FTNT - Free Report) and Okta (OKTA - Free Report) in the security domain.
Fortinet's AI-powered security operations business is accelerating rapidly. The company powers more than 20 AI-driven solutions through its FortiAI technology across three main areas: FortiAI-Protect for secure AI usage, FortiAI-Assist for AI-assisted operations, and FortiAI-SecureAI for secure LLM and AI systems. With more than 500 issued and pending AI patents, Fortinet is well positioned to capitalize on growing AI security demand. The company launched its Secure AI Data Center solution, the industry's first end-to-end framework specifically designed for AI workloads, delivering high-capacity connectivity and up to 69% lower energy consumption than alternative solutions.
Okta’s offerings include Okta AI, a suite of AI-powered capabilities embedded across several products, which empowers organizations to harness AI for building better experiences and protecting against cyberattacks. The company benefits from strong demand for its new products, including Identity Governance, Privileged Access, Device Access, Fine Grained Authorization, Identity Security Posture Management and Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI. Okta expects revenues between $3.17 billion and $3.19 billion for fiscal 2027, indicating year-over-year growth of 9%.
Cisco shares have gained 7.2% year to date, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 5.6% decline.
CSCO Stock’s Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The CSCO stock is trading at a premium, with a trailing 12-month price/book of 6.77X compared with the Zacks Computer Networking industry’s 6.47X. Cisco has a Value Score of F.
CSCO Stock Is Overvalued
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is currently pegged at $1.03 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, suggesting 7.3% growth from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
Cisco Expands AI Agentic Security Portfolio: Will the Tech Deliver?
Key Takeaways
Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) is preparing for a future where AI agents become a major workforce inside enterprises. Agentic agents do not just answer questions; they take actions like managing systems, analyzing data and even making decisions. To support this shift, Cisco extends Zero Trust Access to agents with agent discovery in Cisco Identity Intelligence, agent Identity and Access Management (“IAM”) in Duo, and model context protocol policy enforcement and adaptive risk protection in Secure Access security service edge.
Cisco’s Agent Identity Management helps enterprises register agents in Duo IAM and map them to accountable human owners. This ensures every agent has a verified identity and enables traceability of actions. Meanwhile, Cisco Identity Intelligence discovers agentic and non-human identities to help organizations understand existing AI usage. Cisco is expanding AI Defense with powerful new tools that help organizations test, trust and secure their AI agents and the interactions between them. This solution is expected to address Agentic AI security issues that traditional scanning tools fail to detect.
Cisco’s Security revenues dropped 4% year over year to $2.01 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. An expanding portfolio is driving clientele, which is expected to help the business recover. At Cisco Live Amsterdam, the company unveiled major AI defense and SASE advancements to help secure organizations as AI agents enter the workforce. Cisco SASE has launched a new semantic inspection engine that can evaluate the intent of Agentic interactions and block sophisticated, context-dependent threats. The company made AgenticOps the operating model for AI-driven IT to enable autonomous troubleshooting, continuous optimization and trusted validation.
Cisco is infusing security into the core of Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA. This helps enterprises safeguard their AI platforms and services not only from external threats but from rogue agent behavior. Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall delivers consistent security policies across a diverse set of enforcement points, including network switches, workload agents and more.
CSCO Faces Tough Competition in the Security Domain
Cisco is facing stiff competition from Fortinet (FTNT - Free Report) and Okta (OKTA - Free Report) in the security domain.
Fortinet's AI-powered security operations business is accelerating rapidly. The company powers more than 20 AI-driven solutions through its FortiAI technology across three main areas: FortiAI-Protect for secure AI usage, FortiAI-Assist for AI-assisted operations, and FortiAI-SecureAI for secure LLM and AI systems. With more than 500 issued and pending AI patents, Fortinet is well positioned to capitalize on growing AI security demand. The company launched its Secure AI Data Center solution, the industry's first end-to-end framework specifically designed for AI workloads, delivering high-capacity connectivity and up to 69% lower energy consumption than alternative solutions.
Okta’s offerings include Okta AI, a suite of AI-powered capabilities embedded across several products, which empowers organizations to harness AI for building better experiences and protecting against cyberattacks. The company benefits from strong demand for its new products, including Identity Governance, Privileged Access, Device Access, Fine Grained Authorization, Identity Security Posture Management and Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI. Okta expects revenues between $3.17 billion and $3.19 billion for fiscal 2027, indicating year-over-year growth of 9%.
CSCO Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Cisco shares have gained 7.2% year to date, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 5.6% decline.
CSCO Stock’s Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The CSCO stock is trading at a premium, with a trailing 12-month price/book of 6.77X compared with the Zacks Computer Networking industry’s 6.47X. Cisco has a Value Score of F.
CSCO Stock Is Overvalued
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is currently pegged at $1.03 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, suggesting 7.3% growth from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
Cisco Systems, Inc. Price and Consensus
Cisco Systems, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Cisco Systems, Inc. Quote
Cisco currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.