Cisco Does It Again in Q2

February 14, 2019 by Chris Lange

When Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday, the company posted $0.73 in earnings per share (EPS) and $12.4 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that had called for $0.72 in EPS and revenue of $12.41 billion. In the same period of last year, Cisco said it had EPS of $0.0.63 on $11.69 billion in revenue.

During the most recent quarter, total revenue increased 7% year over year, with product revenue up 9% and service revenue up 1%. Revenue by geographic segment: Americas up 7%, EMEA up 8% and APJC up 5%. Product revenue performance was generally broad-based, with growth in Applications, up 24%, Security, up 18% and Infrastructure Platforms, up 6%.

Deferred revenue totaled $17.3 billion, down 8% in total, with deferred product revenue down 23%. Deferred service revenue was up 3%.

Looking ahead to the fiscal second quarter, the company expects to see EPS in the range of $0.76 to $0.78 and revenue growing between 4% and 6% year over year. Consensus estimates call for $0.76 in EPS and $12.84 billion in revenue.

Chuck Robbins, board chair and chief executive of Cisco, commented:

We are very pleased with our strong performance in the quarter. Our teams are executing incredibly well, aggressively transitioning to a software model and accelerating our pace of innovation. We are redefining and connecting every domain of the networking infrastructure to deliver the agility, operational efficiency and security our customers require to embrace multicloud, edge computing and digital transformation.

Shares of Cisco closed Wednesday at $47.50, with a consensus analyst price target of $52.64. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $40.19 to $49.47. Following the announcement, the stock was up about 5% at $49.70.

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