Is the business good?
How good a business is CSCO?
Cisco earns 20% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
20%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 11 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 23%
Operating margin · Communication Equipment median 4.4% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.99×
Cash conversion · 1.31× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.50%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 28% |
| FY2021 | 26% |
| FY2022 | 27% |
| FY2023 | 26% |
| FY2024 | 23% |
| FY2025 | 21% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 64%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 23%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 20%
- Free cash flow margin
- 19%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 16%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $60.7B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $11.8B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $12.0B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 20%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Communication Equipment
Ranks #7 of 21 by Smart Score