Cisco Systems Inc. provided positive numbers in its fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday, and there’s a story behind those numbers. The networking giant posted a modest revenue beat of $13.64 billion, $100 million more than consensus estimates. Gross margin, boosted by the acquisition of Splunk Inc., came in at a whopping 67.5%, the highest number for Cisco in 20 years. Product order growth rose 14% year over year, 6% excluding Splunk.
It was an interesting year for the world’s largest networking vendor. Cisco Systems Inc. put up record revenue and earnings despite a highly volatile macro environment affected by wars, social issues, inflation, rising interest rates and the like. The company also made the biggest acquisition in its history in September when it announced the purchase of Splunk.
It has been a busy few days this week at WebexOne in Anaheim, where Cisco Systems Inc. revealed a number of new products and solutions for its conferencing and collaboration unit, including devices powered by Nvidia Corp.’s artificial intelligence engine.
At the end of last month, Cisco Systems Inc. invited a small group of analysts to tour its facilities in Oslo, Norway, the home of the Cisco team responsible for its device portfolio — aka “Video Valley” — primarily used with Webex software.
With its fiscal first-quarter earnings reported Wednesday, networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. started off the year with a bang.
Cisco’s numbers are always an important industry litmus test because it’s the biggest networking vendor and has the broadest portfolio. How their quarter goes is a general indicator for the direction of the network, collaboration, service provider spending and security.