Cisco (CSCO)

Is up 32% this year and hitting highs last seen in 2002. 

Stock's been performing decently. Technical structure looks OK. Price is above 200-day MA, which is moving higher. 17x forward PE for only 8% earnings growth, where typically in tech you want 10-20%. Not pricey, but not cheap. For growth, you want an NVDA or AMZN.

12-month price target of $75, pretty darn close. Reports tonight. Unless they really surprise, especially on the guidance side, doesn't expect it to get much higher. At $71 you could write a 1-2 week call with a strike price of $77.50.

Historically, is a good allocator of capital (dividends, buybacks), but lacks growth. They partly returned to growth on the $30 billion purchase of Splunk to drive their cybersecurity business. In turn, this drives earnings and margins. Are a free cash flow machine.

Another play in Edge AI. Kinetic for Cities is Edge AI that you can put on sensors around a city for water, traffic, air, everything. Poster child for this application is Singapore. King of routers and switches, but Edge AI will be very intriguing for them. His 12-month price target is $75.50. Yield is 2.44%.

Technically, it looks strong and it breaking to new highs. Likes it a lot. But recently it's been consolidating after a big move up. Wait for a pullback.

Was upgraded today. Trades at 16x PE and a 6% free cash flow yield. Earnings should grow 5-9%. It's been flat for a while, but so was MSFT. Stocks need time to consolidate.

Is like Oracle 3 years ago when it was still a database company, building the cloud infrastructure. This is already happening to Cisco. Trades at 16x forward PE, and pays a 3% dividend. Buys back a lot of shares. Is enjoying AI and cybersecurity tailwinds.

King of the networking stocks. Hit their stride, mainly because of NVDA selling out of Blackwell and H20 and so on. Started beating on top and bottom, raising guidance (even during the tariff time). Pretty fully priced, with a $70.75 price target within 12 months.

A cornerstone company in tech, but there's huge competition in tech and Cisco remain one step behind. Are better companies.

Likes it, but this part of the economy is bleeding now. A tough call and is reluctant to endorse it. A fine company, but it's not the right moment.

Splunk acquisition in cybersecurity segment has secured a lot more recurring revenue for the company. Steady eddy. Keeps making good acquisitions and integrating. Good management, balance sheet, and dividend yield.

Not cheap anymore, so he sold on the valuation call. Nothing wrong with the business per se if you have a very long horizon.

The CEO has righted the ship and the company is getting a lot of orders.

After delivering a blow-out quarter in August, shares jumped 33%. Then they just announced another strong quarter, beating top and bottom and delivering excellent guidance and raising their full-year forecast.

It's a great barbell opportunity with expensive tech name. It's been raising dividends for 10 years. A great name.