The FINANCIAL — Cisco on August 16 reported fourth quarter and fiscal year results for the period ended July 29, 2017.
Cisco reported fourth quarter revenue of $12.1 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.4 billion or $0.48 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.1 billion or $0.61 per share.
“We had another strong quarter and a transformative year. We made tremendous progress transitioning our business to more software and recurring revenue and delivered on our commitment to accelerate innovation in our core and across the portfolio,” said Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco. “The network has never been more critical to business success and we are building the network of the future.”
“We delivered another solid quarter and fiscal year. We executed well, drove solid profitability, strong cash flow, and we continued to deliver on our strategic growth priorities,” said Kelly Kramer, CFO, Cisco. “We will continue to focus on making the right bets to offer the most innovative technologies to our customers in the way they want to consume it and deliver value to our shareholders.”
Financial Summary
Q4 FY 2017 Highlights
Revenue — Total revenue was $12.1 billion, down 4%, with product revenue down 5% and service revenue up 1%. 31% of total revenue was from recurring offers, up 4 percentage points from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas down 6%, EMEA down 6%, and APJC up 6%. Product revenue performance was led by Wireless and Security which increased 5% and 3%, respectively. NGN Routing and Switching revenue each decreased 9%. Service Provider Video, Data Center, and Collaboration revenue decreased 10%, 4%, and 3%, respectively.
Gross Margin — On a GAAP basis, total gross margin and product gross margin were 62.2% and 60.3%, respectively. The decrease in the product gross margin compared with 62.2% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 was primarily due to pricing, partially offset by productivity improvements and to a lesser extent product mix.
Non-GAAP total gross margin and product gross margin were 63.7% and 61.9%, respectively. The decrease in non-GAAP product gross margin compared with 63.9% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 was also primarily due to pricing, partially offset by continued productivity improvements and to a lesser extent product mix.
GAAP service gross margin was 67.8% and non-GAAP service gross margin was 68.8%.
Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 64.0% for the Americas, 63.8% for EMEA and 62.1% for APJC.
Operating Expenses — On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.5 billion, down 3%. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $3.9 billion, down 7%, and were 32.2% of revenue.
Operating Income — GAAP operating income was $3.0 billion, down 8%, with GAAP operating margin of 25.0%. Non-GAAP operating income was $3.8 billion, down 4%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 31.5%.
Provision for Income Taxes — The GAAP tax provision rate was 23.8%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 22.3%.
Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.4 billion and EPS was $0.48. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.1 billion, a decrease of 3%, and EPS was $0.61, a decrease of 3%.
Cash Flow from Operating Activities — was $4.0 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, an increase of 5% compared with $3.8 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.
FY 2017 Highlights
The revenue and non-GAAP information in this section is presented excluding the SP Video CPE Business for fiscal 2016 as it was divested during the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015.
Revenue — Total revenue was $48.0 billion, a decrease of 2%.
Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $9.6 billion and EPS was $1.90. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $12.1 billion, flat compared to fiscal 2016, and EPS was $2.39, an increase of 1%.
Cash Flow from Operating Activities — was $13.9 billion for fiscal 2017, compared with $13.6 billion for fiscal 2016, an increase of 2%.
Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments — were $70.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, compared with $68.0 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2017, and compared with $65.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2016. The total cash and cash equivalents and investments available in the United States at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 were $3.0 billion.
Deferred Revenue — was $18.5 billion, up 12% in total, with deferred product revenue up 23%, driven largely by subscription-based and software offerings, and deferred service revenue was up 6%. The portion of product deferred revenue related to recurring software and subscription offers increased 50%.
Product Backlog — was approximately $4.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2017, an increase of 3% compared with the balance at the end of fiscal 2016.
Capital Allocation — In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Cisco declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.29 per common share, or $1.4 billion. For the full fiscal year, Cisco declared and paid cash dividends of $1.10 per common share, or $5.5 billion.
For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Cisco repurchased approximately 38 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $31.61 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $1.2 billion. For the full fiscal year, Cisco repurchased approximately 118 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $31.38 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $3.7 billion. As of July 29, 2017, Cisco had repurchased and retired 4.7 billion shares of Cisco common stock at an average price of $21.30 per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $100.3 billion since the inception of the stock repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is approximately $11.7 billion with no termination date, according to Cisco.
For the full fiscal year, Cisco returned $9.2 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends.
Acquisitions — In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, we closed the acquisition of MindMeld, Inc. and the acquisition of the advanced analytics team and associated intellectual property developed by Saggezza. We also announced our intent to acquire Viptela, Inc., a privately held company that provides software-defined wide area networking products, and Observable Networks, Inc., a privately held company that offers cloud-native network forensics security applications delivered as a service. Both acquisitions closed in the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
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