| From: Julius Wong | 5/13/2019 8:46:42 PM | | | | | | Researchers report key weaknesses in ubiquitous Cisco router
Researchers are disclosing a vulnerability that could let attackers take over Cisco Systems' (CSCO -3.5%) 1001-X router, a move that Wired says has massive global implications.
That router is for institutional use (such as stock exchanges) rather than home use.
Researchers at Red Balloon exploited two vulnerabilities: one in Cisco's IOS (not Apple's iOS) allowing remote root access -- and more important, a way to bypass the Trust Anchor in hardware, the router's most fundamental security protection.
Problems with operating systems like IOS can be patched with software -- and Cisco is announcing a patch today -- while the Trust Anchor is thornier, and Cisco disputes that the secure boot vulnerability directly impacts the Trust Anchor. |
| | Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
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| From: Eric | 5/15/2019 4:10:36 PM | | | | | | Cisco Reports Third Quarter Earnings
4:05 PM ET 5/15/19 | PR Newswire
| Related Quotes | | |  | | 4:00 PM ET 5/15/19 | | Symbol | Last | % Chg |
CSCO
| 52.44 | 0.81% | | Real time quote. | | |
Cisco Reports Third Quarter Earnings
-- Q3 Results:
-- Revenue: $13.0 billion
-- Growth of 6% year over year (normalized to exclude the divested SPVSS
business for Q3 FY 2018)
-- Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.69; Non-GAAP: $0.78
-- Non-GAAP EPS increased 18% year over year
-- Q4 Guidance (normalized to exclude the divested SPVSS business for Q4 FY
2018):
-- Revenue: 4.5% to 6.5% growth year over year
-- Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.66 to $0.71; Non-GAAP: $0.80 to $0.82
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco today reported third quarter results for the period ended April 27, 2019. Cisco reported third quarter revenue of $13.0 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $3.0 billion or $0.69 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.5 billion or $0.78 per share.
As previously disclosed, Cisco completed the divestiture of the Service Provider Video Software Solutions (SPVSS) business in the second quarter of fiscal 2019 on October 28, 2018. Revenue, non-GAAP financial information, and Q4 FY 2019 guidance have been normalized to exclude the SPVSS business from prior periods for comparative purposes.
"Our strong performance in the quarter was across the business, reflecting our customers' confidence in our strategy, business model and market-leading portfolio," said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. "Technology is at the heart of our customers' strategies and we are building the technology to help them achieve their business objectives."
GAAP Results
Vs. Q3 FY
Q3 FY 2019 Q3 FY 2018 2018
Revenue (including
SPVSS business
for all periods) $ 13.0 billion $ 12.5 billion 4%
Revenue (excluding
SPVSS business
for all periods) $ 13.0 billion $ 12.2 billion 6%
Net Income $ 3.0 billion $ 2.7 billion 13%
Diluted Earnings
per Share (EPS) $ 0.69 $ 0.56 23%
Non-GAAP Results
Q3 FY 2019 Q3 FY 2018 Vs. Q3 FY 2018
Net Income
(excluding SPVSS
business for all
periods) $ 3.5 billion $ 3.2 billion 8%
EPS (excluding
SPVSS business
for all periods) $ 0.78 $ 0.66 18%
Reconciliations between net income, EPS, and other measures on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis are provided in the tables located in the section entitled "Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures."
"We executed well in Q3, delivering revenue growth of 6%, non-GAAP EPS growth of 18%, as well as strong margins and cash flow," said Kelly Kramer, CFO of Cisco. "We continue to invest in our innovation pipeline to drive long-term profitable growth, while successfully evolving our business model through software offerings and subscriptions and delivering value for shareholders."
Financial Summary
All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.
All revenue, non-GAAP, and geographic financial information in the "Q3 FY 2019 Highlights" section are presented excluding the SPVSS business for all periods as it was divested during the second quarter, on October 28, 2018.
Q3 FY 2019 Highlights
Revenue -- Total revenue was $13.0 billion, up 6%, with product revenue up 7% and service revenue up 3%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 9%, EMEA up 5%, and APJC down 4%. Product revenue performance was broad based with growth in Security, up 21%, Applications, up 9%, and Infrastructure Platforms, up 5%.
Gross Margin -- On a GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 63.1%, 62.0%, and 66.3%, respectively, as compared with 62.3%, 61.0%, and 65.8%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 64.6%, 63.7%, and 67.3%, respectively, as compared with 64.5%, 63.7%, and 67.1%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 65.6% for the Americas, 64.5% for EMEA and 60.7% for APJC.
Operating Expenses -- On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.7 billion, up 1%. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.2 billion, up 6%, and were 32.4% of revenue.
Operating Income -- GAAP operating income was $3.5 billion, up 12%, with GAAP operating margin of 27.1%. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.2 billion, up 6%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 32.2%.
Provision for Income Taxes -- The GAAP tax provision rate was 15.8%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 19.0%.
Net Income and EPS -- On a GAAP basis, net income was $3.0 billion and EPS was $0.69. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.5 billion, an increase of 8%, and EPS was $0.78, an increase of 18%.
Cash Flow from Operating Activities -- $4.3 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2019, an increase of 79% compared with $2.4 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Operating cash flow for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 included the payment of $1.3 billion of one-time foreign taxes as related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Operating cash flow increased 16%, normalized for these tax payments.
Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments -- $34.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2019, compared with $40.4 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2019, and compared with $46.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2018.
Deferred Revenue -- $17.5 billion, down 8% in total, with deferred product revenue down 23%. Deferred service revenue was up 3%.
Capital Allocation -- In the third quarter of fiscal 2019, we returned $7.5 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. We declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.35 per common share, or $1.5 billion, and repurchased approximately 116 million shares of common stock under our stock repurchase program at an average price of $52.14 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $6.0 billion. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under the program is $18.0 billion with no termination date.
Acquisitions
In the third quarter of fiscal 2019, we closed the acquisitions of Luxtera, Inc., a privately held semiconductor company, and Singularity Networks, a privately held network infrastructure analytics company.
Guidance for Q4 FY 2019
Cisco expects to achieve the following results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 (normalized to exclude the divested SPVSS business):
Q4 FY 2019
Revenue 4.5% - 6.5% growth Y/Y
Non-GAAP gross margin rate 64% - 65%
Non-GAAP operating margin rate 31% - 32%
Non-GAAP tax provision rate 19%
Non-GAAP EPS $0.80 - $0.82
Revenue for the divested SPVSS business for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 was $206 million.
Cisco estimates that GAAP EPS will be $0.66 to $0.71 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.
A reconciliation between the Guidance for Q4 FY 2019 on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is provided in the table entitled "GAAP to non-GAAP Guidance for Q4 FY 2019" located in the section entitled "Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures."
Editor's Notes:
-- Q3 fiscal year 2019 conference call to discuss Cisco's results along with
its guidance will be held on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific
Time. Conference call number is 1-888-848-6507 (United States) or
1-212-519-0847 (international).
-- Conference call replay will be available from 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, May
15, 2019 to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, May 22, 2019 at 1-888-446-2545
(United States) or 1-402-998-1344 (international). The replay will also
be available via webcast on the Cisco Investor Relations website at
investor.cisco.com.
-- Additional information regarding Cisco's financials, as well as a webcast
of the conference call with visuals designed to guide participants
through the call, will be available at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time, May 15,
2019. Text of the conference call's prepared remarks will be available
within 24 hours of completion of the call. The webcast will include both
the prepared remarks and the question-and-answer session. This
information, along with the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation information,
will be available on the Cisco Investor Relations website at
investor.cisco.com.
-- Cisco is hosting Cisco Live, its premier annual customer and partner
conference June 9-13 in San Diego, Calif. Register now for keynotes,
hands-on learnings experiences, expert demos and networking.
CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In millions, except per-share amounts)
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended
April 27, April 28, April 27, April 28,
2019 2018 2019 2018
REVENUE:
Product $ 9,722 $ 9,304 $ 28,885 $ 27,067
Service 3,236 3,159 9,591 9,419
Total revenue 12,958 12,463 38,476 36,486
COST OF SALES:
Product 3,693 3,625 11,106 10,594
Service 1,092 1,079 3,278 3,208
Total cost of
sales 4,785 4,704 14,384 13,802
GROSS MARGIN 8,173 7,759 24,092 22,684
OPERATING
EXPENSES:
Research and
development 1,659 1,590 4,824 4,706
Sales and
marketing 2,403 2,325 7,084 6,894
General and
administrative 541 561 1,261 1,601
Amortization of
purchased
intangible
assets 39 67 112 188
Restructuring
and other
charges 18 82 282 332
Total operating
expenses 4,660 4,625 13,563 13,721
OPERATING
INCOME 3,513 3,134 10,529 8,963
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires |
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| From: Eric | 5/15/2019 4:26:39 PM | | | | | | UPDATE: Cisco stock rises as earnings, revenue forecast top Wall Street estimates
4:23 PM ET 5/15/19 | MarketWatch
| Related Quotes | | |  | | 4:15 PM ET 5/15/19 | | Symbol | Last | % Chg |
CSCO
| 52.44 | 0.81% | | Real time quote. | | |
UPDATE: Cisco stock rises as earnings, revenue forecast top Wall Street estimates
By Wallace Witkowski, MarketWatch
Earnings outlook for networking company's fiscal fourth quarter in-line with estimates
Cisco Systems Inc.'s stock rose in the extended session Wednesday after the networking company reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street estimates and a revenue forecast for the end of its fiscal year that exceeded the analyst consensus.
Cisco (CSCO) shares rose 3% after hours. The company reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $3.04 billion, or 69 cents a share, compared with a $2.69 billion, or 56 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 78 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 77 cents a share, while Cisco had forecast earnings of 76 cents to 78 cents a share.
Revenue rose to $12.96 billion from $12.46 billion in the year-ago quarter. Product revenue rose to $9.72 billion from $9.3 billion a year ago, and service revenue rose to $3.24 billion from $3.16 billion last year. Analysts had expected revenue of $12.89 billion, while Cisco had forecast revenue of $12.96 billion to $13.21 billion. Wall Street had forecast product revenue of $9.65 billion and service revenue of $3.22 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Cisco expects adjusted earnings of 80 cents to 82 cents a share on 4.5% to 6.5% year-over-year revenue growth, or $13.21 billion to $13.46 billion. Cisco said the forecast excludes the company's now divested Service Provider Video Software Solutions business, which brought in $206 million in the fourth quarter in 2018.
Analysts had estimated earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of $13.29 billion.
Cisco said it returned $7.5 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends in the third quarter: $1.5 billion though dividends and $6 billion in the buyback of about 116 million shares at an average price of $52.14 a share. Cisco said it still has $18 billion in buyback authority remaining.
Cisco shares closed Wednesday up 0.8% at $52.44, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1%.
-Wallace Witkowski; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
> Dow Jones Newswires |
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| From: Eric | 5/16/2019 4:47:47 PM | | | | | | Cisco sees little impact from tariffs, delivers another upside report
11:31 AM ET 5/16/19 | Briefing.com
| Related Quotes | | |  | | 4:00 PM ET 5/16/19 | | Symbol | Last | % Chg |
CSCO
| 55.93 | 6.66% | | Real time quote. | | |
The stock market is receiving a lift this morning following solid quarterly reports from two Dow components: namely, Walmart (WMT) and Cisco (CSCO). These reports are helping to take the focus off of trade concerns with China, which have been dominating headlines.
As for CSCO, the networking and IT security company delivered solid 3Q19 results last night, edging out analysts' top and bottom line estimates. EPS came in at $0.78 vs. the $0.77 expectation on revenue growth of 4.0% to $12.96 bln, also above the $12.89 bln forecast.
It guided for Q4 revenue growth of 4.5-6.5%, which equates to $13.34 bln at the mid-point, slightly ahead of the $13.29 bln consensus.
Click here to access the earnings press release.
Heading into the print, concerns were rising that the new hike in tariffs on Chinese goods could impact the company's growth and outlook. In particular, some of CSCO's switches and routers are made in China. This angst helps explain why the stock sank by nearly 8% from the beginning of May through this past Monday.
However, during the earnings call last night, management did a good job easing investors' concerns, stating that only about 3% of its overall revenues now come from China. Over the past several months, the company has reduced its exposure to China, re-working its supply chain and changing its suppliers.
Furthermore, its CEO stated that it already anticipated that tariffs would be increased to 25% from 10% and that this change was already baked into its outlook.
The minimal impact of the tariffs is reflected in the solid results from its core Infrastructure Platform segment (58% of revenue), which was up 5% to $7.55 bln, better than the $7.47 bln expectation.
Within this segment, management credited switching devices as a significant catalyst driven by the continued ramp of its Catalyst 9000 products. Also, healthy demand for SD-WAN boosted its routing product line.
Its security segment was another key contributor to the upside results; revenue in the category jumped by 21%. From a broader sense, CSCO and many other cyber security companies are benefiting from several trends, including the acceleration of emerging technologies like AI, multi-cloud, and IoT.
CSCO's growth was also aided from the integration of Duo Security, which was acquired last October for $2.35 bln. Duo is best known for its two-factor authentication tools, which help employees to securely access applications and platforms through mobile devices.
To put the impact of Duo into perspective, CSCO said that Duo contributed about 40 basis points to its growth this quarter.
Another issue facing CSCO is that some analysts have questioned the quality of its recent upside reports and its growth overall. That's because its yr/yr growth rates have been inflated by the change to 606 accounting methods.
Companies with a lot of deferred revenue, such as those in the software and communications equipment industries like CSCO, have been impacted the most because the new rule states that revenue must usually be booked right away, rather than stretched out over time.
Consequently, CSCO's software-based revenue has seen an artificial bump from the new standards. But as the implementation of the new rules moves further into the rear-view mirror, the effect is becoming smaller. For this quarter, CSCO said that the 606 impact was a positive 1.2%, relatively light compared to other quarters.
As Cisco is a mature $50 bln business, it's very difficult for it to move the needle in terms of growth, but the upcoming transition to 5G is expected to be a meaningful catalyst as communications and service providers upgrade their networking equipment.
This figures to be a more meaningful factor next year. In the meantime, the launch of new subscription-based Wi-Fi 6 access points, the ongoing Catalyst 9000 refresh, and certain price hikes should accommodate growth throughout the remainder of 2019.
Key Takeaways: CSCO's guidance and commentary helped ease concerns regarding the new escalated tariffs on China-made products. The company has done a good job diversifying its supply chain and manufacturing processes away from China, limiting its exposure there.
Due to its sheer size, its growth rates don't spectacular to begin with, but its modest growth rates have been somewhat inflated by new accounting rules and acquisitions. So, to say business is booming probably wouldn't be an accurate description.
However, several emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, multi-cloud, and Wi-Fi 6 position it well to keep growth rates churning higher. Longer term, the transition to 5G should be a meaningful catalyst.
My comments:
Cisco is a mature company very different than when I first went long with a very large position way back in 1992.
5G and other necessary tech buildouts required for it over the next ten years will give Cisco greatly accelerated growth compared to the last 15.
But it won't be explosive like it was in the 1990's when the Internet was in it's infancy.
Those days are over....
JMHO
Eric |
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| From: Eric | 5/29/2019 9:38:35 AM | | | | | | UPDATE: Chuck Robbins decided to 'change everything' at Cisco, and it's working
3:02 PM ET 5/28/19 | MarketWatch
| Related Quotes | | |  | | 9:33 AM ET 5/29/19 | | Symbol | Last | % Chg |
CSCO
| 53.27 | -1.22% | | Real time quote. | | |
UPDATE: Chuck Robbins decided to 'change everything' at Cisco, and it's working
Four years after taking over for Silicon Valley legend John Chambers, Cisco CEO Robbins has transformed the company
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Chuck Robbins minces no words in describing how he took the baton from Silicon Valley legend John Chambers and began to radically remake Cisco Systems Inc.
"The last quarter before I took over was a record for revenue, but I said we were going to change everything," Robbins told MarketWatch in a one-hour, one-on-one interview at the company's San Jose, Calif., headquarters this month. "The fear was if you change seven things at once and something breaks, the question is, What did we break?"
The unassuming Robbins essentially reshaped a multibillion-dollar legacy company, top to bottom, from one built almost entirely on selling hardware for networking to one focused on hybrid cloud and recurring software subscriptions. The tricky transformation is the stuff that Harvard Business School case studies are made of -- in this case, an August 2016 paper that deemed the corporate handoff "a smooth transition."
Cisco's(CSCO)metamorphosis was not entirely smooth, though: It required a change in operations, products and personnel that took more than a year and led to layoffs, wholesale executive changes and some rough quarters. During the transition, Robbins had to dip into a well of salesmanship to convince longtime customers to change along with Cisco.
Q&A:Five questions with Chuck Robbins -- exclusive MarketWatch interview with the Cisco CEO (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/five-questions-with-chuck-robbins-on-ciscos-transformation-2019-05-25)
Omid Mohoeb, global director of network and telecom at Anheuser-Busch InBev(ABI.BT) , the largest brewer in the world, used to consider Cisco "a hardware company selling boxes." But as Cisco has morphed, so has Anheuser-Busch's use of its technology.
"Now, we view them as more of a service provider that connects hardware and services," says Mohoeb, who plans to shift to a Cisco subscription model in a few years.
That was the aim Robbins had when he took the mantle nearly four years ago, and some analysts are now comparing Cisco's renaissance with Satya Nadella's reboot of Microsoft Corp.(MSFT)as a major cloud vendor as much as a software powerhouse. Robbins, 53, has been able to pull it off despite industry skepticism over the pivot of a 34-year-old company so closely identified with networking hardware.
"Kudos to Chuck Robbins for doing a commendable job shepherding Cisco through geopolitical issues, such as competing with Huawei, and reaching for a greater share of the public cloud wallet from Google(GOOGL) (GOOGL) , Amazon(AMZN)and Microsoft," IDC analyst Rohit Mehra told MarketWatch in a phone interview. "Many thought the cloud was Cisco's kryptonite and would eventually lead to its demise. How Cisco transformed itself from a hardware box seller into a trusted technology partner helping customers navigate the complex cloud world is one great story."
What the company is accomplishing isn't unprecedented -- venerable tech giants like Adobe Inc.(ADBE)along with Microsoft have moved to the cloud as part of their turnaround narratives. But neither software-focused company faced the same challenges as Cisco, a hardware company overly dependent on network switches and other devices that often weren't replaced for years.
"No question Adobe and Microsoft are tremendous companies that have done great transitions to the cloud, but they have a number of pure software assets," Robbins said. "We are predominantly a hardware company. This is more complicated."
A rough transition
Cisco's second act under Robbins, which started in mid-2015, has picked up steam in the past 18 months, with revenue growth, and the promise of more to come, pushing shares up almost 25% in the past year. But it hasn't been easy: It took seven quarters of declining growth before the plan took hold.
From last year: Cisco turns corner in move to a new era (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-earnings-show-turnaround-success-stock-zooms-toward-post-2000-highs-2018-02-14)
While some aspects of Cisco remain intact from Chambers's reign, it's significantly different in terms of its business model, culture and leadership, insiders and analysts say.
"There was considerable turnover in executive ranks and the overall talent pool," JMP Securities analyst Erik Suppiger told MarketWatch in a phone interview. "Lately, Cisco has been able to achieve modest growth, but they need to identify and capitalize on growth opportunities" beyond networking hardware, he added.
Cisco, which established its name on networking equipment, continues to invest heavily in cloud, security, the "internet of things" and data centers. In the past four years, the acquisition-happy company has snapped up 31 companies across analytics/data center (10), networking (seven), security (six), cloud (four) and collaboration (four).
From 2015: The four big opportunities for new Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-four-big-opportunities-for-new-cisco-ceo-chuck-robbins-2015-10-02)
As Cisco has changed, so, too, has its revenue stream. Though a majority of Cisco's revenue still comes from the sale of hardware, $9.7 billion in its April quarter, its software sales are steadily increasing. Importantly, a growing percentage of those sales came from subscriptions, with 65% of software sales in its April quarter coming through subscriptions, compared with 57% in the year-earlier quarter. Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kramer has said that the software transition will lead to 30% of Cisco's revenue coming from software sales by 2020, up from 22% in 2017, and she said in an earnings conference call this month that Cisco is ahead of schedule on that goal.
A key driver is demand for its subscription-based Catalyst 9000 family of network switches, the fastest-growing product in Cisco's history. The software-rich Catalyst 9000 was introduced in 2017 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-hopes-artificial-intelligence-and-subscription-pricing-can-make-it-cool-again-2017-06-20) to offer organizations integrated advanced security, automation and better performance as they need it via a paid subscription plan.
Corporations in the midst of digital transformations are ordering technology as if off a menu, based on needs and level of expertise, IDC analyst Mehra said. Cisco is "in Year 3 or 4 in a 10-year transformation," he said, and its progress is "slow and steady."
Cisco customers are on a similar arc. Increasingly, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. is buying hardware updates via a subscription plan from Meraki, the cloud-infrastructure company that Cisco acquired for $1.2 billion in 2012.
"There is a simplicity to adding features as we need them," said Paul Steinberger, a network engineer at Horsham, Pa.--based Penn Mutual, which also uses Cisco network switches to connect several hundred employees to company computer servers and the internet. "It makes administration easier."
Succeeding a Silicon Valley legend
Under Chambers, Cisco's annual sales rocketed from $1.2 billion in 1995 to nearly $50 billion in 2015, cementing his status on Silicon Valley's Mount Rushmore. In 2000, Cisco was briefly the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of $557 billion, more than twice today's valuation of roughly $250 billion. However, Cisco's double-digit growth stalled toward the end of his tenure amid wrenching industry changes that helped smaller, nimbler rivals find ways to design and manage computer networks.
Chambers, who now runs a venture-capital firm in Silicon Valley, declined to comment on Cisco in an email. Robbins and Chambers -- who stepped down as executive chairman in late 2017 -- maintain a close relationship and occasionally golf together, Robbins said.
From 2017: Cisco is Chuck Robbins's company now, for better or worse (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-is-chuck-robbinss-company-now-for-better-or-worse-2017-09-18)
The transition from Chambers, an alpha male who could command a room even while hanging out with world leaders, to Robbins, a former JV basketball player at the University of North Carolina who favors a team-oriented approach, wasn't entirely vexing. Both men were brought up in small Southern towns, share backgrounds in sales with an emphasis on customer service, and agreed that Cisco had to jump to the digital age.
The story is far from over. Cisco is still in the beginning of its transformation, Mehra and others point out, and Robbins has faced several potential hurdles along the way. The latest: murmurs of an economic slowdown, intensified competition with rival Huawei Technologies, and a trade war with China.
For more: How Cisco is working around the China tariffs (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-cisco-is-working-around-the-china-tariffs-2019-05-15)
Cisco's efforts in cybersecurity have been a big draw for investors, but slackening enterprise spending in early 2019 recently dinged the results of rivals like Symantec(SYMC)and Check Point Software Technologies(CHKP) . This makes analyst Suppiger cautious about Cisco's long-term prospects.
"Companies are recalibrating their digital transformation projects -- particularly cybersecurity in the cloud," Suppiger said. He has a rating of market perform on Cisco shares but no share-price target. "[Corporate customers] are struggling to strategize and reassess that part of the business."
Robbins never assumed any of this would be easy, though, and knows he has a long road ahead.
"We must constantly transform," he said, with a nod to the past and an eye to the future. "We need to constantly make changes in order for Cisco to stay relevant over the next three, five, 10 years -- especially in today's rapidly changing environment."
Chambers put it more bluntly in an interview at his tony Silicon Valley home last year: "Traditional companies can't move with the speed they once did. Anyone who misses will be Amazon'd or Uber'd." |
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| From: Eric | 5/31/2019 6:10:04 PM | | | | | | Cisco Stock Is a Top Pick During the Trade War, Analyst Says -- Barrons.com
11:23 AM ET 5/30/19
| Related Quotes | | |  | | 4:15 PM ET 5/31/19 | | Symbol | Last | % Chg |
CSCO
| 52.03 | -2.87% | | Real time quote. | | |
By Tae Kim
Cisco Systems stock is attractive because it is relatively insulated from the escalating trade conflict between the U.S. and China, according to JPMorgan.
The networking company is a leading maker of routers, switches, and security products.
The back story. Cisco shares (ticker: CSCO) have rallied about 24% so far in 2019. Earlier this month, the company reported strong fiscal third-quarter results above Wall Street expectations.
What's new. JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee on Thursday reaffirmed his Overweight rating for Cisco stock, citing the company's low exposure to China.
"Cisco remains our top pick for investors looking at safe havens in the current environment to navigate through the trade war noise," he wrote. The company has "relatively modest exposure to China and [is] largely immune to any trade-related impacts."
Cisco shares were up 0.5% to $53.45 on Thursday.
The analyst cited the fact that China represents less than 5% of Cisco's sales. He is optimistic about the networking giant's latest product line and its shift to selling more software and subscription offerings.
The company said on its last earning call it expects just a "modest impact" from the worsening trade conflict between the U.S. and China. Cisco also has proactively adjusted its supply chain to lower the impact of any potential tariff increases.
Looking ahead. The analyst reaffirmed his $60 price target for Cisco stock, representing 12% upside to the current stock price. |
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| From: JakeStraw | 6/12/2019 8:12:35 AM | | | | | | The Network Gets Smarter, Simpler and More Secure with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
investor.cisco.com
News Summary:
Cisco helps IT teams better understand network behavior and predict issues with new artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
Since its introduction two years ago, Cisco's intent-based networking has reinvented how networks are built and managed. Cisco is furthering this effort through multidomain integrations designed to provide end-to-end security, segmentation and application experience.
Cisco is delivering these new software advancements via software subscriptions, granting customers access to ongoing innovation. |
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