Cisco on Wednesday reported fourth quarter financial results slightly ahead of expectations. The networking giant reported double-digit order growth across all customer markets and geographies, including product order growth of 31 percent — its strongest year-over-year growth in over a decade.
“Our performance reflects the impact of our investments in high growth opportunities resulting in our strong product order growth,” CFO Scott Herren said in a statement.
The product order growth also coincides with supply chain challenges hitting Cisco and other IT companies, which has prompted Cisco to respond with “strategic price increases.”
Cisco’s Q4 non-GAAP earnings per share came to 84 cents on revenue of $13.1 billion up 8% year-over-year.
For the full fiscal year, Cisco’s non-GAAP EPS was flat year-over-year. Revenue was $49.8 billion, up 1% year-over-year.
Wall Street was expecting fourth quarter earnings of 82 cents per share on revenue of $13.03 billion.
“We continue to see great momentum in our business as customers are looking to modernize their organizations for agility and resiliency,” CEO Chuck Robbins said in a statement. “The demand for Cisco technology is strong with our Q4 performance marking the highest product order growth in over a decade. With the power of our portfolio, we are well positioned to help our customers accelerate their digital transformation and thrive in a hybrid world.”
Cisco reported continued momentum in transforming the business to delivering more software and subscriptions. It achieved $4 billion in software revenue in Q4 (an increase of 6% with subscription revenue up 9% year-over-year) and $15 billion for the year (an increase of 7% with subscription revenue up 15% year-over-year).
For the first quarter, Cisco expects revenue growth of 7.5% to 9.5% year-over-year. For the full fiscal 2022, it expects revenue growth of 5% to 7% year-over-year.
