News Release Cisco Reports Second Quarter Earnings

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 16, 2022

News Summary:

• Strong business momentum drove $12.7 billion in revenue, up 6% year over year; GAAP EPS $0.71, up 18% year over year, and Non-GAAP EPS $0.84, up 6% year over year
• Continued robust demand across the business with third consecutive quarter of more than 30% total product order growth
• Solid progress on business model transformation with total Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) at $21.9 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2022, up 11% year over year
• Dividend increased 3% and additional $15 billion authorized for stock repurchase
• Q2 Results:
  • Revenue: $12.7 billion
    • Increase of 6% year over year
  • Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.71; Non-GAAP: $0.84
    • GAAP EPS increased 18% year over year
    • Non-GAAP EPS increased 6% year over year
• Q3 Guidance: 
  • Revenue: 3% to 5% growth year over year
  • Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.70 to $0.74; Non-GAAP: $0.85 to $0.87
• FY 2022 Guidance:
  • Revenue: 5.5% to 6.5% growth year over year
  • Earnings per Share: GAAP: $2.83 to $2.92; Non-GAAP: $3.41 to $3.46

Cisco today reported second quarter results for the period ended January 29, 2022. Cisco reported second quarter revenue of $12.7 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $3.0 billion or $0.71 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.5 billion or $0.84 per share.

“We continue to see incredibly strong demand across our portfolio, emphasizing the criticality and relevance of Cisco’s innovation,” said Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. “Our robust order strength, record backlog and double-digit growth in annual recurring revenue position us well to deliver growth.”

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.”

Cisco Increases Quarterly Cash Dividend; Stock Repurchase Program Authorization Increased

Cisco has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per common share, a 1-cent increase or up 3% over the previous quarter’s dividend, to be paid on April 27, 2022 to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 6, 2022. Future dividends will be subject to Board approval.

Cisco’s board of directors has also approved a $15 billion increase to the authorization of the stock repurchase program. There is no fixed termination date for the repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases including the additional authorization is approximately $18 billion.

“Our business performed well with revenue and non-GAAP EPS growing 6% year over year despite the supply-constrained environment,” said Scott Herren, CFO of Cisco. “We delivered healthy margins while continuing to make good progress in our business model shift, with software product revenue growing 9% year over year and the product portions of ARR and RPO growing in double digits. The combination of our dividend increase and additional share repurchase authorization demonstrates our commitment to returning excess capital to our shareholders and confidence in our ongoing cash flows.”

Financial Summary

All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.

Q2 FY 2022 Highlights

Revenue — Total revenue was up 6% at $12.7 billion, with product revenue up 9% and service revenue down 1%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 3%, EMEA up 11%, and APJC up 13%. Product revenue performance was led by growth in Secure, Agile Networks up 7%, Internet for the Future up 42%, End-to-End Security up 7%, and Optimized Application Experiences up 12%. Hybrid Work was down 9%.

Gross Margin —  On a GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 63.3%, 61.8%, and 67.3%, respectively, as compared with 65.1%, 64.5%, and 66.6%, respectively, in the second quarter of fiscal 2021.

On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 65.5%, 64.3%, and 68.8%, respectively, as compared with 66.9%, 66.6%, and 67.9%, respectively, in the second quarter of fiscal 2021.

Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 64.5% for the Americas, 66.8% for EMEA and 66.5% for APJC.

Operating Expenses —  On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were flat at $4.6 billion, and were 35.9% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.0 billion, up 2%, and were 31.2% of revenue.

Operating Income — GAAP operating income was $3.5 billion, up 8%, with GAAP operating margin of 27.4%. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.4 billion, up 6%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 34.3%.

Provision for Income Taxes — The GAAP tax provision rate was 17.5%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 19.0%.

Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $3.0 billion, an increase of 17%, and EPS was $0.71, an increase of 18%. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.5 billion, an increase of 6%, and EPS was $0.84, an increase of 6%.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities — $2.5 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2022, a decrease of 17% compared with $3.0 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2021.

Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments — $21.1 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2022, compared with $24.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2021.

Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) — $30.5 billion, up 8% in total, with 53% of this amount to be recognized as revenue over the next 12 months. Product RPO were up 16% and service RPO were up 3%.

Deferred Revenue — $22.3 billion, up 7% in total, with deferred product revenue up 17%. Deferred service revenue was flat.

Capital Allocation — In the second quarter of fiscal 2022, we returned $6.4 billion to stockholders through share buybacks and dividends. We declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.37 per common share, or $1.5 billion, and repurchased approximately 82 million shares of common stock under our stock repurchase program at an average price of $58.36 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $4.8 billion.

Acquisitions

In the second quarter of fiscal 2022, we closed the acquisition of replex GmbH, a privately held enterprise software company based in Germany. In addition, we announced our intent to acquire Opsani, a privately held enterprise software company.

Guidance

Cisco expects to achieve the following results for the third quarter of fiscal 2022:

The third quarter of fiscal 2021 included an extra week.

Cisco estimates that GAAP EPS will be $0.70 to $0.74 for the third quarter of fiscal 2022.

Cisco expects to achieve the following results for fiscal 2022:

Cisco estimates that GAAP EPS will be $2.83 to $2.92 for fiscal 2022.

Our Q3 FY 2022 and FY 2022 guidance assumes an effective tax provision rate of 18% for GAAP and 19% for non-GAAP results.

A reconciliation between the Guidance on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is provided in the tables entitled “GAAP to non-GAAP Guidance” located in the section entitled “Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures.”

Editor’s Notes:

• Q2 fiscal year 2022 conference call to discuss Cisco’s results along with its guidance will be held on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 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, February 16, 2022 to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, February 23, 2022 at 1-888-568-0332 (United States) or 1-203-369-3905 (international). The replay will also be available via webcast on the Cisco Investor Relations website at https://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, February 16, 2022. 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 https://investor.cisco.com.

Except as noted above, this guidance does not include the effects of any future acquisitions/divestitures, asset impairments, restructurings, (gains) and losses on equity investments and significant tax matters or other events, which may or may not be significant unless specifically stated.

Forward Looking Statements, Non-GAAP Information and Additional Information
This release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events (such as our ability to deliver growth through our investments in innovation; the strength of our strategy; the continued momentum in our business; our growing pipeline and record backlog which we believe will convert into revenue in the coming quarters; our on-going transformation to accelerate our shift to more software and subscription-based recurring revenue; our significant growth opportunities and expanding addressable markets; and our commitment to returning excess capital to our shareholders and confidence in our ongoing cash flows) and the future financial performance of Cisco (including the guidance for Q3 FY 2022 and full year FY 2022) that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures; business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, our customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; overall information technology spending; the growth and evolution of the Internet and levels of capital spending on Internet-based systems; variations in customer demand for products and services, including sales to the service provider market and other customer markets; the return on our investments in certain priorities, key growth areas, and in certain geographical locations, as well as maintaining leadership in Secure, Agile Networks and services; the timing of orders and manufacturing and customer lead times; significant supply constraints; changes in customer order patterns or customer mix; insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; variability of component costs; variations in sales channels, product costs or mix of products sold; our ability to successfully acquire businesses and technologies and to successfully integrate and operate these acquired businesses and technologies; our ability to achieve expected benefits of our partnerships; increased competition in our product and service markets, including the data center market; dependence on the introduction and market acceptance of new product offerings and standards; rapid technological and market change; manufacturing and sourcing risks; product defects and returns; litigation involving patents, other intellectual property, antitrust, stockholder and other matters, and governmental investigations; our ability to achieve the benefits of restructurings and possible changes in the size and timing of related charges; cyber-attacks, data breaches or malware; vulnerabilities and critical security defects; terrorism; natural catastrophic events (including as a result of global climate change); any other pandemic or epidemic; our ability to achieve the benefits anticipated from our investments in sales, engineering, service, marketing and manufacturing activities; our ability to recruit and retain key personnel; our ability to manage financial risk, and to manage expenses during economic downturns; risks related to the global nature of our operations, including our operations in emerging markets; currency fluctuations and other international factors; changes in provision for income taxes, including changes in tax laws and regulations or adverse outcomes resulting from examinations of our income tax returns; potential volatility in operating results; and other factors listed in Cisco’s most recent reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K filed on November 23, 2021 and September 9, 2021, respectively. The financial information contained in this release should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in Cisco’s most recent reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K as each may be amended from time to time. Cisco’s results of operations for the three and six months ended January 29, 2022 are not necessarily indicative of Cisco’s operating results for any future periods. Any projections in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco, which is subject to change. Although any such projections and the factors influencing them will likely change, Cisco will not necessarily update the information, since Cisco will only provide guidance at certain points during the year. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release.

This release includes non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income and margin, non-GAAP effective tax rates, non-GAAP interest and other income (loss), net, and non-GAAP net income per share data for the periods presented. It also includes future estimated ranges for gross margin, operating margin, tax provision rate and EPS on a non-GAAP basis.

These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. Cisco believes that non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with Cisco’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and that these measures should only be used to evaluate Cisco’s results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.

Cisco believes that the presentation of non-GAAP measures when shown in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and its historical and projected results of operations.

For its internal budgeting process, Cisco’s management uses financial statements that do not include, when applicable, share-based compensation expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, acquisition-related/divestiture costs, significant asset impairments and restructurings, significant litigation settlements and other contingencies, gains and losses on equity investments, the income tax effects of the foregoing and significant tax matters. Cisco’s management also uses the foregoing non-GAAP measures, in addition to the corresponding GAAP measures, in reviewing the financial results of Cisco. In prior periods, Cisco has excluded other items that it no longer excludes for purposes of its non-GAAP financial measures. From time to time in the future there may be other items that Cisco may exclude for purposes of its internal budgeting process and in reviewing its financial results. For additional information on the items excluded by Cisco from one or more of its non-GAAP financial measures, refer to the Form 8-K regarding this release furnished today to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Annualized Recurring Revenue represents the annualized revenue run-rate of active subscriptions, term licenses, and maintenance contracts at the end of a reporting period, net of rebates to customers and partners as well as certain other revenue adjustments. Includes both revenue recognized ratably as well as upfront on an annualized basis.

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