Cisco’s strong US sales, popular Nexus product raise revenue
Monday, 19 May 2014 00:00
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REUTERS: Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc posted a shallower-than-expected 5.5% drop in quarterly revenue, as recovering demand in regions like the United States and Northern Europe helped offset sluggish sales in emerging markets.
The company posted gross margins of 62.7% in its fiscal third quarter, up from 53.3.% in the previous quarter and above guidance of 61 to 62%.
Cisco’s key server business has grappled with competition from so-called software-defined networks (SDN) , which offer software that can run on cheap hardware. Lately it has been gaining some traction in that battle thanks to its Nexus 9000 switches, which can adapt to flows in workloads brought on by cloud computing, and big data.
“It is about as solid of a quarter as you can expect,” said analyst Zeus Kerravalla at ZK research.
“Seeing gross margin get back up above 62% is certainly good news for investors and should help alleviate some of the concern that their business is being commoditised,” he said.
Total US product orders rose 7% from one year ago, with enterprise and commercial orders rising more than 10%. Order strength in northern Europe was up 4% year-over-year.
Yet in emerging markets, where Cisco faced increased competition, orders fell 7%, with Brazil down 27% and Russia down 28%.
Nexus 9000 grew to a user base of 175 customers, up from 20 customers last quarter.
“The traction we are seeing with application-centric solutions gives me confidence that we are leading the disruption of SDN,” said Cisco’s Chief Executive Officer John Chambers.
Chambers said the company’s book-to-bill ratio, the ratio of orders received to units shipped and billed, was “comfortably above one,” indicating strong demand.
The company gave forecasts of earnings per share of 51 cents to 53 cents, and a gross margin of 62.7% for the fourth quarter.
Shares rose in after hours trading to $ 24.39 from a $ 22.80 close on the Nasdaq.
Cisco had a net profit of $ 2.2 billion in the fiscal third quarter, down from $ 2.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. Cisco reported revenue of $ 11.5 billion, down from $ 12.2 billion a year earlier.
