Cisco will release earnings November 12, with AI orders and margins in focus

Cisco will release its fiscal first-quarter results after the market closes on November 12, 2026, followed by a call at 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT. Listen through https://investor.cisco.com. The results will put its AI infrastructure outlook alongside a lower gross-margin forecast, testing whether rising demand is translating into more profitable growth.

Cisco’s official announcement confirms a live audio webcast with accompanying slides, plus an archived replay on its investor-relations website. The call covers the quarter ended October 24, 2026. Cisco also says it will stream the event on YouTube, LinkedIn and X. This is an earnings preview, not a report of completed results; the company has scheduled the financial release for after the market close.

August set a higher bar

The setup begins with Cisco’s August 12 results. Fourth-quarter revenue reached $17.3 billion, up 18%, while adjusted earnings were $1.22 a share, according to Startup Fortune. Cisco then forecast first-quarter revenue of $18.0 billion to $18.2 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.32 to $1.34 a share. Those figures were well above the roughly $16.7 billion and $1.11 analysts had expected at the time.

The AI business supplied a substantial demand signal: Cisco reported $9.3 billion in infrastructure orders from its largest cloud customers in fiscal 2026, including $4 billion in the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2027, the company expects about $7.5 billion in AI infrastructure revenue. Those are different measures: the historical figures describe orders, while the forward target describes revenue. They should not be read as a forecast decline from $9.3 billion to $7.5 billion.

Profitability complicated that picture. AI hardware carries lower margins than software, Startup Fortune explains, and Cisco guided first-quarter gross margin to 65%–66%. Gross margin measures the share of revenue left after the direct cost of what a company sells. Its forecast followed an annual decline in the fourth-quarter measure, making the mix of products sold important alongside the pace of sales.

The stock fell; expectations caught up

Cisco’s strong August sales and higher outlook did not prevent a negative market response. Trefis says shares fell about 8% the following day despite the company beating its own guidance and raising its AI outlook. That reaction is relevant to this call: exceeding an earlier sales forecast did not, by itself, satisfy investors.

The shares have since faced further pressure. In its November 12 preview, Trefis calculates that Cisco fell 15% in the month through Wednesday, compared with 9% for Arista and 24% for Nvidia. Cisco had held up better than Nvidia over that period, but networking was not insulated from the retreat in AI-linked stocks.

Reported expectations: demand versus margin

Analysts have moved closer to Cisco’s August forecast. In his November 12 preview, Startup Fortune’s Dave Barr cites Zacks consensus estimates of $18.09 billion in revenue and $1.33 a share in earnings. Both sit inside Cisco’s guidance ranges. Barr also cites Zacks’s expectation that rising memory prices and a greater share of lower-margin hardware will weigh on gross margin. That is an analyst expectation, not a result Cisco has disclosed.

The release and call therefore offer three distinct checks on the business, rather than one headline revenue test:

• Demand: compare new AI infrastructure orders with the prior quarter’s $4 billion. That is a historical reference point, not a confirmed target for this quarter.
• Profitability: compare the reported gross margin with Cisco’s forecast range. Higher sales and a lower margin can coexist when hardware accounts for more of the business.
• The outlook: check whether Cisco retains its AI revenue target and its company-wide fiscal 2027 revenue forecast of $72.2 billion to $73.4 billion. Those forecasts remain the benchmarks entering the call, not completed sales.