Cisco shares fell 5% after it topped expectations with its fiscal Q4 earnings but issued downbeat guidance for the current quarter, the start of its new fiscal year.
Revenues fell 9% to $12.2B, with declines across all regions. Security was again a bright spot for revenues (with a 10% gain) but its core infrastructure platforms business dipped by double digits. Revenue by region is Americas, $7.19B (down 12%); EMEA, $3.11B (down 6%); APJC, $1.86B (down 7%).
The company has met its goal of drawing more than half its revenue from software and services, it says.
"We executed well in Q4, delivering strong margins despite the very challenging environment," says CFO Kelly Kramer. "Software subscriptions now make up 78% of our software revenue and remaining performance obligations continued to grow strongly in the quarter, reflecting the strength of our portfolio of software and services."
Revenue by type: Infrastructure Platforms, $6.63B (down 16%); Applications, $1.36B (down 9%); Security, $814M (up 10%); Other products, $35M (down 17%); Services, $3.32B.
For fiscal Q1 2021, it's guiding to a revenue decline of 9-11% year-over-year, with gross margin of 64-65%, operating margin of 30-31%.
“As you would expect, the pandemic has had the most impact on our enterprise and commercial orders, driven by an overall slowdown in spending,” CEO Chuck Robbins said on the earnings call. "We are seeing customers continue to delay their purchasing decisions in certain areas, while increasing spend in others until they have greater visibility and clarity on the timing and shape of the global economic recovery."
