General presentation of the Cisco Company:
The Cisco System Group is currently the market leader in the design, development and sale of network equipment for the internet. More precisely, this company achieves over 30% of its turnover through the creation of technological systems and software as well as switches, with nearly 23% solely from its assistance services, network design and development.
Cisco’s market share is mainly from the United States and Canada but extends to Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Know the competition of Cisco shares:
Through its different activities, Cisco Systems is present in a number of IT sectors. Therefore, it faces competition from the major players in each of these specialised sectors. For an investor it is advantageous to know which are Cisco’s greatest competitors before starting to speculate on its share price online. Here therefore we offer you the opportunity to learn more about their competition.
In the technological equipment and communications sector, Cisco is in fourth position in terms of company turnover, just after Alcatel-Lucent, Allied Telesis and Avaya. It is followed closely by Ericsson, Huawei, Juniper and Nokia.
In the sector of IT software Cisco is only in 14th position worldwide. This sector’s primary positions are held by Microsoft, Oracle and IBM which are the current leaders, after which are HP, Adobe, CA Technologies and other companies.
It is important to monitor the movements of market parts of each of these companies when completing your analyses.
Strategic alliances implemented by the Cisco Group:
- Salesforce: In 2013, Cisco Systems and Salesforce implemented a partnership to develop and sell communal solutions for professionals.
- Apple: In 2015, Cisco Systems announced a partnership with the American group Apple in order to develop more devices using iOS with companies that already worked with Cisco.
- Ericsson: Still in 2015, the Swedish company Ericsson and Cisco Systems signed a technological and sales agreement with the objective of becoming serious competitors to Huawei in the network equipment and services sector.
- Valeo: Finally, in 2017, Cisco and Valeo announced their partnership in smart mobility with a connected parking solution. This partnership should provide interesting innovations in the coming years.
Introduction and quotation of Cisco shares:
The Cisco share price is currently quoted on the Pan European market of the NYSE ARCA Europe and is included in the calculation of the Nasdaq 100 stock market index.
A historical technical analysis of its share price displays some bullish peaks, the first in September 2007 at over $33, then another in 2010, and even at present with a share price of over $29.
Stock market information
To implement an intelligent online trading strategy with Cisco shares, it is above all necessary to understand the position held by the Cisco Company on the international stock markets. Here therefore is some general stock market information that will assist you in making fully informed decisions from an advantageous position:
- In 2017, the total stock market capital of the Cisco Company rose to 168,414.19 million U.S. dollars.
- The number of shares issued by the Cisco Company and currently in circulation on the market is 5,344,336,000.
- Cisco’s share price is currently quoted on the Nasdaq Global Select Market of Nasdaq All Markets in the United States.
- The Cisco Company also features in the composition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index (the DJIA) and can therefore be considered as one of the major companies in the United States.
- Major shareholdings in the Cisco Company are 6.60% by the American investment fund Blackrock and 6% by the Vanguard Group investment fund. The remainder of the shares are held by institutional investors and private individuals on the international stock markets.
Economic history
To assist you in correctly interpreting the historical stock market charts of Cisco shares we now offer you the opportunity to learn about some major economical and financial events that have significantly influenced this company.
- In 2011 the Cisco Group announced their intention to release 6,500 employees which represents 9% of their workforce and the company foresees a total reduction of 15% in order to decrease manufacturing costs. It also sold its factory in Mexico.
- In 2012 Cisco acquired Meraki for the sum of 1.2 billion dollars.
- In 2013 Cisco announced the buyout of Sourcefire for 2.7 billion dollars. In the same year the group announced a 5% cut in its workforce, a loss of 4,000 jobs.
- In 2014 Cisco announced a cutback of 6,000 jobs.
- In 2015 Cisco acquired OpenDNS for 635 million dollars. In the same year it sold its audiovisual equipment activities to the Technicolor Company for 550 million Euros. It then acquired Lancope for 452 million dollars and Acano for 700 million dollars.
- In 2016, Cisco bought out Jasper Technologies then announced the cutback of 5,500 workers although estimations had been made of possible cutbacks in employees of up to 14,000. Still in 2016, the group suffered difficulties due to a group of hackers called The Shadow Brokers that revealed spy tools from the Equation Group linked to the National Security Agency. These tools inserted implants and tools enabling the pirating of firewalls from both Cisco Systems and Fortinet. They rapidly released patches after announcing that the files published contained Zero day vulnerabilities.
- In 2017 the Cisco group announced the acquisition of AppDynamics, a company specialised in management tool applications, for the amount of 3.7 billion dollars. In the same year the group cut another 1,100 posts in a continuation of their restructuration that had begun several years before.
Advantages and strengths of Cisco shares as a stock market asset
Firstly, of course, the good international expansion strategy that the group has pursued for many years. Thanks to this strategy, Cisco now markets its solutions and products in many countries. It is thus better protected against the risks of geographically localized economic downturns.
The Cisco Group is also generating attractive margins and good profitability thanks to another strategy, this time in terms of the economies of scale it can achieve. These economies offer an intelligent and interesting reduction in production or supply costs.
In addition to a good geographical diversification of its sales, Cisco also benefits from an excellent diversification of its products and solutions, which allows it to be present in many segments of its business sector and to reach sophisticated markets.
Of course, Cisco's positioning in relation to its competitors and its industry is another undeniable advantage of this value. Indeed, let us recall here that Cisco is currently the leader in its field on the market. This gives it many advantages, including a strong negotiating power with its suppliers and partners.
Still with regard to Cisco's assets, we can mention the great popularity of this brand due to its many innovations. It should be noted that the group has a particularly strong research and development division that enables it to develop technological and innovative products. In particular, Cisco focuses its efforts on experimenting with better value products over the long term.
Finally, stock market investors also appreciate the good financial and economic performance of this company, which gives them a high level of reassurance.
Disadvantages and weaknesses of the Cisco share as a stock market asset
If the Cisco Group has a good chance of developing positively in the years to come and therefore its share price on the stock market is also likely to develop positively, it is also necessary to take into account the possible shortcomings of this value and therefore to know the weak points that may affect this development. Here is therefore the list of the main weaknesses of this company.
Firstly, storage networks are currently in decline, which may of course, in the long term, be detrimental to Cisco's business and profitability.
It is also regrettable that the group is not more active in the field of BPO technologies and markets, whereas the other world leaders in this sector are already well established in this area. This situation is therefore likely to lead to a loss of market share for Cisco in the more or less long term.
