#3 - Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO)
It’s possible that this period where many Americans are forced to work from home may make some of the trends that have been in place for some time a permanent part of our culture. One of the trends is the use of virtual private networks (VPNs). And Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is one of the leading manufacturers of these networks. According to Mark Rounds, a management information systems instructor at the University of Idaho, this is only the beginning of a long-term trend towards employees using VPNs to work from home.
Cisco addresses a key need for businesses to have a proper work-from-home infrastructure. “Coronavirus may expose the underlying weakness of the existing telecommuting infrastructure on both the corporate and public side,” said Rounds. “Companies supplying the hardware that will be used to build a more robust infrastructure will increase in value and the prices of their products will be driven higher.”
And Cisco is more than just a hardware play. The company has Web-Ex “the leading enterprise solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen share, and webinars.”
Cisco is also seeing nice growth in its security business. And while this business has a lot more competition, Cisco can benefit from being able to provide a secure, and functional work-from-home infrastructure. And like many stocks right now, Cisco stock is selling at a heavy discount from its 52-week highs.
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.
Read More - Current Price
- $58.52
- Consensus Rating
- Moderate Buy
- Ratings Breakdown
- 11 Buy Ratings, 10 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
- Consensus Price Target
- $60.28 (3.0% Upside)