SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

   Technology StocksCisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)


Previous 10 Next 10 
From: Eric5/15/2019 4:30:31 PM
   of 77394
 
Cisco CC is starting right now as of 1:30 PM PDST:

wsw.com

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric5/16/2019 4:47:47 PM
   of 77394
 
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
SymbolLast% Chg
55.936.66%
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

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric5/29/2019 9:38:35 AM
   of 77394
 
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
SymbolLast% Chg
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."

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric5/31/2019 6:10:04 PM
   of 77394
 
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
SymbolLast% Chg
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.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: JakeStraw6/12/2019 8:12:35 AM
   of 77394
 
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.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: JakeStraw6/12/2019 8:14:01 AM
   of 77394
 
Cisco Securely Connects Harsh Environments and Remote Locations at the IoT Edge
investor.cisco.com
News Summary:

Cisco is extending intent-based networking to some of the most challenging work environments on Earth; from chemical plants and oil refineries, to mines.

Unveiling ruggedized industrial switches, access points and routers designed to withstand extended exposure to water, dust, and other extreme environmental conditions.

Cultivating a global ecosystem of partners and developers, such as Emerson, to innovate on Cisco networking platforms.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric8/7/2019 4:03:19 PM
   of 77394
 
Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Voicea

8:00 AM ET 8/6/19 | PR Newswire

Related Quotes
4:00 PM ET 8/7/19
SymbolLast% Chg
52.34-0.49%
Real time quote.

Unlocking the Power of Data Within Business Conversations to Turn Talk into Action

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

News Summary:

-- Cisco intent to acquire Voicea* represents another proof point in Cisco's

continuous commitment to making Webex the collaboration

platform-of-choice for the best employee experience.

-- As part of the Webex portfolio, our first focus is to use Voicea to turn

a simple meeting into a treasure trove of digital meeting notes and

insights, with robust data privacy.

-- Acquisition builds upon Cisco's vision of Cognitive Collaboration, which

slipstreams AI across all interactions to make teams more productive.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced its intent to acquire privately-held Voicea, headquartered in Mountain View, CA. Voicea is the creator of a market-leading real-time solution that provides meeting transcription, voice search, and meeting highlights/action items, with robust data privacy. It helps teams have more productive and actionable meetings by turning talk into action.

With Voicea technology, Cisco will enhance its Webex portfolio of products with a powerful transcription service that blends AI and Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) to unlock the power of any collaboration, like meetings and calls. Our first focus with Voicea is to turn meetings into a treasure trove of digital meeting notes and insights. Attendees and non-attendees can quickly gather the most relevant information from these digital notes and insights, turning a block of text into actionable information.

Key Facts:

-- This acquisition reflects Cisco's vison of Cognitive Collaboration,

interoperability, and workplace transformation through combining the

power of AI, ML, software, hardware, and the network to remove friction

and get work done faster and smarter.

-- The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of Cisco's

fiscal year 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and required

regulatory approvals.

-- Upon completion of the transaction, the Voicea team will join the Webex

portfolio team, led by Sri Srinivasan, Senior Vice President and General

Manager. Read the blog for more details.

-- Cisco collaboration customers include 95 percent of the Fortune 500.

-- More than 130 million people use Webex every month.

-- More than 360 million meetings happen on Webex each year.

"Voicea's true market leading technology will be a game changer for our Webex customers to experience more productive and actionable meetings," said Amy Chang, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Collaboration. "The acquisition of Voicea allows us to leap past basic transcription services and instead, continue delivering on our vision of AI-driven, Cognitive Collaboration across our entire portfolio."

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow's digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

* Rizio Inc., is doing business as Voicea

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.

Press Contact: Industry Analyst Contact: Investor Relations Contact:

Christine Johansen Ben Culp Carol Villazon

+1 (617) 595-8434 +1 (949) 823 3787 +1 (408) 527-6538

cjohanse@cisco.com beculp@cisco.com carolv@cisco.com

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cisco-announces-intent-to-acquire-voicea-300896768.html

SOURCE Cisco

Web site: cisco.com

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric8/12/2019 4:39:02 PM
   of 77394
 
3 Reasons to Be Bullish on Cisco Stock Ahead Of Earnings -- Barrons.com

10:43 AM ET 8/12/19

Related Quotes
4:00 PM ET 8/12/19
SymbolLast% Chg
51.54-1.70%
46.11-1.01%
Real time quote.

By Eric J. Savitz

Tech stock earnings season continues this week, as Cisco Systems (ticker: CSCO) reports earnings Wednesday for its July quarter. And there are reasons for optimism about the networking equipment giant's shares.

J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee pointed out in a research note Monday that the stock is trading about 10% below its 52-week high, pressured by investor concerns about the U.S.-China trade spat, and a nasty earnings disappointment from NetApp (NTAP) that hinted at softening Enterprise IT spending.

But Chatterjee repeated his Overweight rating and $62 price target on the stock, and offered three reasons he thinks the bearish tone on the stock is overdone:

-- Both of the company's most direct competitors in networking hardware,

Arista (ANET) and Juniper (JNPR), recently reported strong enterprise

sector growth.

-- While the macro economy uncertainty appears to be "elongating sales

cycles for large award wins with larger enterprises," Cisco's deep

customer footprint across a range of small- and medium-size business and

enterprise customers will limit the impact on its results, he adds.

-- And Chatterjee says Cisco's "accelerating top-line momentum" -- driven by

product cycles in campus switching and security -- as well as a coming

product tailwind in Wi-Fi equipment, "will allow the firm to offset macro

headwinds."

For those reasons, Cisco can show top-line acceleration, with mid-single-digit revenue growth going forward, Chatterjee writes. "We believe the recent weakness in CSCO shares offer an attractive entry point," he writes. The stock trades at 15.4 times earnings on a next 12 months basis, below the market multiple at 16.7 times, despite a "superior medium-term top-line and earnings growth outlook."

For Cisco's fiscal fourth quarter ended July 31, Street consensus calls for revenue of $13.39 billion, up 6%, with earnings of 82 cents a share. Cisco's guidance for the quarter called for revenue growth of 4.5% to 6.5%, with non-GAAP profits of 80 to 82 cents a share.

On Monday morning, Cisco stock fell 21 cents, or 0.4%, to $52.22.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: John Koligman8/14/2019 6:53:57 PM
   of 77394
 
Cisco drops on poor guidance, says China business dropped 25%
PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGOUPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Jordan Novet @JORDANNOVET













KEY POINTS

Cisco beat on top and bottom lines.Guidance came in below estimates.The company said it would buy Acacia Communications in the quarter.



Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins being interviewed in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2016.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Cisco shares fell by as much as 7% after hours on Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected guidance. It had already dropped 4% during the day on a disastrous day for stocks.

Here’s what the company reported:

Earnings: 83 cents per share, excluding certain items, vs. 82 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.Revenue: $13.43 billion, vs. $13.38 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue grew 6% on an annualized basis in the quarter, according to a statement.

“We did see in July some slight early indications of some macro shifts that we didn’t see in the prior quarter,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told analysts on a Wednesday conference call. He said in the quarter Cisco company saw “significant impact” on business in China because of the U.S.-China trade war.

In China, Cisco’s revenue was down 25% on an annualized basis in the quarter, Kelly Kramer, the company’s chief financial officer, said on the call.

“What we’ve seen is in the state on enterprises ... we’re just being -- we’re being uninvited to bid,” Robbins said. “We’re not being allowed to even participate anymore.” Sales to carriers declined more forcefully as well, he said.

The majority of Cisco’s revenue comes from sales of data center networking products, including switches and routers. That business is represented by Cisco’s Infrastructure Platforms segment, which came up with quarterly revenue of $7.88 billion, above the $7.84 billion consensus among analyst polled by FactSet.

The Applications segment had $1.49 billion in revenue, in line with the $1.49 billion FactSet analyst consensus. Cisco’s Security business contributed $714 million in revenue, less than $739.9 million FactSet consensus estimate.

Heading into the report, some analysts expressed concerns about Cisco given storage hardware company NetApp’s decision to lower its fiscal-year guidanceat the beginning of August.

“We expect a large portion of NetApp’s headwinds to have limited implications for Cisco, except for cautious spending from large accounts which we believe Cisco is well positioned to offset through a strong product cycle and broader customer exposure,” JP Morgan analysts led by Samik Chatterjee wrote in a Monday note.

Cisco’s broad customer base could help the company weather softer macroeconomic conditions, wrote the JP Morgan analysts, who have an overweight rating on Cisco stock.

In the quarter Cisco announced new Wi-Fi products and a plan to acquire Acacia Communications for $2.6 billion.

As for guidance, Cisco said it expects to report 80 to 82 cents in earnings per share, excluding certain items, and flat to 2% revenue growth in the first quarter of its 2020 fiscal year. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were looking for 83 cents in earnings per share, excluding certain items, and $13.40 billion in revenue, or 2.5% growth, for that period.

Shares of the company are up 17% since the beginning of the year.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read


From: Eric12/19/2019 6:22:22 PM
   of 77394
 
Buy Cisco Stock to Play New Product Cycles, Analyst Says -- Barrons.com

12:04 PM ET 12/19/19

Related Quotes
4:15 PM ET 12/19/19
SymbolLast% Chg
47.882.66%
Real time quote.

By Eric J. Savitz

Cisco Systems stock is trading higher Thursday after Barclays upped its rating on the network equipment provider.

Analyst Tim Long now rates the stock Overweight from Equal Weight previously, with a new target price of $53, up from $47.

Cisco shares (ticker: CSCO) have sharply underperformed the market in 2019, with a year-to-date gain of just 13%, versus 33% for the Nasdaq Composite. Since peaking above $58 a share in July, Cisco shares have slumped 18%. The decline reflects recent investor concerns with the outlook for both enterprise and carrier spending amid a tougher macro environment. In reporting earnings last month, Cisco projected January quarter revenue would be down 3% to 5% on a year-over-year basis, a range of $11.8 billion to $12.1 billion, or as much as $1 billion below the previous Street consensus at $12.8 billion.

In an interview with Barron's following earnings last month, Cisco Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kramer said that order weakness the company saw in the previous quarter "got a little worse for us" in the October quarter. She said there was continued softness both from service providers and in emerging markets, but that the issue has spread and become more broad-based.

In a research note this morning, Long says his more bullish stance reflects both a valuation call and the promise of a recent round of product announcements.

"Cisco has a diversified revenue stream, but a few key product areas should improve for Cisco and the industry over the next year," he writes.

Long calls out Cisco's new 8000 router series which is based on the company's new Cisco Silicon One chip. "Cisco is four years removed from its last routing cycle, so we expect upgrades and share gains, particularly as 5G traffic grows," he writes.

Long also sees further gains for the campus switching market, where he estimates 40% share for Cisco's 9000 series switches. And Long says a technology shift to Wi-Fi 6 should help both the wireless local area networking, or WLAN, and campus switching segments.

As for the stock, Long says Cisco shares have historically outperformed following guidance revisions like the one issued last quarter. "We expect this time to be no different, particularly as product cycles emerge," he writes. Long today lifted his earnings-per-share estimates to $3.25 from $3.20 for the July 2020 fiscal year, and to $3.50 from $3.38 for fiscal year 2021. And he sees potential for multiple expansion, with new product cycles improving sentiment on the shares.

Cisco stock on Thursday was up recently 2%, to $47.55.

Share RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read
Previous 10 Next 10