Cisco Posts $12.2 Billion in Sales, Slightly Ahead of Expectations

Cisco reported first quarter revenue of $12.2 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $1.8 billion or $0.35 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.8 billion or $0.54 per share, for the period ending October 25, 2014.

For Q2, Cisco is setting expectations for growth in the 4-5% range.

"We are pleased with our results and are very comfortable in our strategy to deliver innovative solutions which enable the next generation of IT and the Internet of Everything. This was our strongest Q1 ever in terms of revenue, non-GAAP operating income, and non-GAAP EPS," stated Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers.

Some highlights for the quarter:

• By geography, sales in the Americas were up 2%, EMEA up 6% while APJC were down 12% compared to a year ago.
• By customer segment, Enterprise sales rose 2%,  Public Sector sales rose 13%, Commercial sales rose 5%, while Service Provider sales fell 10%, compared to a year ago.  U.S. Federal sales grew 34% y/y.
• Two major service providers in the U.S. have significantly slowed their orders, this impacted overall U.S. sales and Service Providers sales.
• In routing, ASR 9K saw double digit order growth y/y .
• Switching revenue grew 3% y/y…driven by strength in data center switching portfolio.  The Nexus 9K has over 900 customers.  Paying customer adoption of the APIC solution more than doubled.  Record 600 new customers signed for Nexus 3K including several major Web 2.0 providers.
• Security revenue grew 25% y/y…innovation engine in security is strong.
• Wireless revenue grew 11% y/y strong momentum in 802.11 ac portfolio.
• Services revenue grew 5% y/y.
• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $52.1 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared with $52.1 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, and compared with $48.2 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2014.
• Frank Calderoni is stepping down as CFO and will be replaced by Kelly A. Kramer, who is currently senior vice president, Business Technology and Operations Finance of Cisco.
• Cisco currently has 72,247 employees, down from 75,136 a year ago.

In the quarterly conference call, John Chambers commented on the call by President Obama for the FCC to regulate broadband Internet service as a Title 2 utility, warning that uncertainty created by new regulation would cause network operators to slow or halt their broadband rollouts.  Chambers said he supports FCC Chairman Wheeler's effort to create some compromise that lets operators make money while ensuring consumer protections.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1532319