Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Reaffirmed ‘Buy’ as AI Growth and Strategic Positioning Drive Strong Outlook

We recently published a list of 10 Trending AI Stocks on Latest Analyst Ratings and News. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) stands against other trending AI stocks on the latest analyst ratings and news.

The race to get ahead in artificial intelligence is getting fiercer than ever. Naturally, US companies are investing tons of money to build massive data centers and computing infrastructure for AI.  Back in 2014, data centers only accounted for 5% of spending, whereas now they spend nearly a third (32%). Jensen Huang, believes that over the next four or five years, the data center infrastructure and hardware that will be constructed worldwide will be worth over 2 trillion dollars.

READ ALSO: 12 AI News and Ratings You Should Not Miss and 15 Trending AI Stocks on Latest Analyst Ratings and News

Naturally, these data centers also have an insatiable appetite for electricity. Only last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied plans for Talen Energy to supply additional on-site power to an AWS data center campus, with plan opponents citing a threat to grid reliability as well as a raise in customer rates. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a single data center can require 50 times the electricity of a typical office building.

Nevertheless, the benefits of artificial intelligence are huge, possibly outweighing the drawbacks of its high electricity consumption. Companies strongly believe that integrating artificial intelligence in their operations can help them gain a competitive edge, such as by enhancing customer experiences, unlocking new revenue streams, and optimizing internal processes.

Emerging Trends in Artificial Intelligence

Shifting the focus to recent developments in the field, a notable legal victory has unfolded, shedding light on the evolving landscape of AI. Is it illegal for AI companies to use news articles, books, and similar material to train tools? While it may be a direct copyright infringement, OpenAI just secured itself a victory in its ongoing legal battle against publishers on how AI tools are using their creative work. A copyright lawsuit brought by independent publishers Alternet and Raw Story was dismissed on November 7 for its lack of standing. OpenAI claimed that these publishers had no legal standing to bring this claim, and there was no proof that ChatGPT was trained on their material.

“We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by long-standing and widely accepted legal precedents”.

-OpenAI spokesperson Jason Deutrom.

In other news, XPENG Motors, a leading Chinese high-tech automotive company, has officially launched the P7+ in China, noted to be the world’s first AI-defined vehicle. The P7+ offers advanced AI-driven technology, enhancing smart driving and smart cockpit experiences through the company’s state-of-the-art AI architecture. The innovation marks the company’s dedication to leading the way in AI-defined mobility, and that too, on a global scale.

Further discussing automotive AI news, Waymo, an American autonomous self-driving technology company, is exploring a new kind of artificial intelligence model for its self-driving operations. Waymo’s new end-to-end multimodal model for autonomous driving, called EMMA, is currently in its research phase.

“EMMA is research that demonstrates the power and relevance of multimodal models for autonomous driving. We are excited to continue exploring how multimodal methods and components can contribute towards building an even more generalizable and adaptable driving stack.”

– Drago Anguelov, VP and Head of Research at Waymo.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Reaffirmed 'Buy' as AI Growth and Strategic Positioning Drive Strong Outlook

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Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 61

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is an American technology company that provides information technology and networking services. The company integrates AI-powered capabilities across its entire product and customer service portfolio, with artificial intelligence currently contributing an estimated 2% to the company’s revenue.

On November 8, Citi maintained a “Buy” rating on Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and set a price target of $62.00. Citi bases its rating on the company’s growth potential and strategic positioning. The firm states that Cisco is poised to benefit from an expanding AI total addressable market, especially due to its robust pipeline of projects and partnerships, such as with META. Recent quarters have also witnessed Cisco’s growing presence in the Data Center Interconnect (DCI) market, although it contributes less significantly to company revenue.  The analyst also states that the current valuation gap between Cisco and its peers is unjustified, especially considering its diversified sales mix and increasing software contributions.

Overall, CSCO ranks 7th on our list of trending AI stocks on the latest analyst ratings and news. While we acknowledge the potential of CSCO as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CSCO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.