After the bell, Cisco reported its fiscal fourth quarter financial performance, which beat market expectations.
The company detailed revenue of $12.84 billion in its fiscal period, resulting in earnings per share of $0.59, using adjusted accounting techniques (non-GAAP). On a GAAP, or normal accounting basis, Cisco earned a slimmer $0.45 per share on net income of $2.3 billion during the quarter.
Investors had expected $0.56 in adjusted profit off of revenue of $12.65 billion. Revenue from Cisco’s two key top-line drivers, “product” and “service,” each expanded in the quarter, compared to its year-ago results.
Shares of the networking giant are up over 100 basis points in the wake of its financial report. In regular trading, Cisco was roughly flat in a broadly down market. For sequential reference, Cisco had revenue of $12.14 billion resulting in adjusted profit of $0.54 per share. Those figures both bested expectations by a slight amount.
The company’s fiscal fourth quarter revenue tally was up 4 percent compared to the year-ago period. Its profits, using normal accounting techniques, rose 3.2 percent over the same quarter. The firm ended its fiscal year with $60.4 billion in cash and equivalents. For you accounting dorks, here’s how that sum works out between international and domestic cash, according to Cisco:
$7.0 billion of cash and cash equivalents and investments was available in the United States at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.
That should grant Cisco enough cash latitude here in the States to buy a thing or two, if it wants. And prices go down.
For its full fiscal year, Cisco had revenue of $49.2 billion, up a similar 4 percent. Using adjusted methods, Cisco generated $11.4 billion in profit, a figure that is tempered when using stricter methods (GAAP), resulting in a fiscal year win of $9 billion. Despite not being a media darling, Cisco remains an incredibly profitable corporate vehicle.
Looking ahead, Cisco expects the following for its new fiscal quarter:
Those figures point to a roughly in-line sequential profit expectation and margin forecast.
A solid quarter, a modest bump, and decent guidance. Given the chop we’ve seen from other companies, a more mundane report doesn’t offend.