Cisco is One of the More Popular Stocks to Watch in April, Here’s Why

Shares of Cisco (CSCO) are trading at the highest levels recorded since 2019 after gaining more than 15% in March. CSCO is seen as one of the more popular stocks lately as it expected to benefit from a massive infrastructure plan unveiled by President Joe Biden. 

Moreover, the network infrastructure company has also announced several new exciting partnerships as it further dips into the booming artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G industries.

Investing in AI startup Securiti

AI-Powered cybersecurity and data protection infrastructure Securiti said it has received funding from Cisco Investments. The two companies have entered into a partnership to develop new solutions for multi-cloud and edge security, privacy, and compliance.

The amount of data continues to grow, giving rise to both new opportunities and obligations for companies. Under broader data, there is ‘sensitive data’ that hackers usually go after, which can be misused. 

The emergence of multi-cloud and edge computing created a new opportunity for businesses to adopt a new architecture that could help them establish a distributed safety perimeter around multi-cloud data.

“Enterprises require a common view of sensitive data and the ability to detect, track and granularly control it – whether it’s used in multi-cloud deployments, passing through SASE, shared over an API or with a third-party app, being used or being moved,” says Rehan Jalil, chief executive of Securiti. 

“Securiti will help enable a distributed perimeter of security, privacy, and compliance controls around multi-cloud data in a unified way.”

Patterning with NEC on 5G

A few days ago, Cisco also signed a Global System Integrator Agreement (GSIA) with Japan’s NEC Corporation for the worldwide deployment of a 5G IP transport network.

Cisco and NEC said they will work together to create new business opportunities for 5G and companies under the NEC group will collaborate with the U.S. tech conglomerate to add optimized IP metro/access transport and edge cloud computing products to the NEC’s ecosystem.

Moreover, Cisco said it will allow NEC to use its flagship products, proposal, and execution supports. The two companies will also cooperate to grow their joint solution portfolio and accelerate the digital shift of customers around the world. 

“We believe 5G is fueling the internet for the future and accelerating our customers’ digital transformations. Together with NEC, we are creating a powerful force to drive the critical changes needed in networking infrastructure to carry the internet into the next decade,” said Jonathan Davidson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group. 

Looking ahead to earnings

Cisco stock soared in March to push the price action above the $50 mark for the first time since August 2019. Bulls will be looking to push the price action about 15% higher from the current levels, as that zone hosts the record high.

In late March, Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall upgraded the stock rating to Buy from Neutral and set a price target of $59, which would translate into a new record high for CSCO. Shares of the company are up over 24% since the beginning of the year.

Cisco is set to present its Q3 fiscal earnings on May 19th with market analysts expecting the company to report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.82.