Cisco Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2017 Earnings

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 16, 2017) - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO)

• Q4 Revenue: $12.1 billion
  • Decrease of (4)% year over year
  • Recurring revenue was 31% of total revenue, up 4 pts year over year
• Q4 Earnings per Share: $0.48 GAAP; $0.61 non-GAAP
• FY 2017 Earnings per Share: $1.90 GAAP; $2.39 non-GAAP
• Q1 FY 2018 Outlook:
  • Revenue: (3)% to (1)% decline year over year
  • Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.48 to $0.53; Non-GAAP: $0.59 to $0.61

Cisco today reported fourth quarter and fiscal year results for the period ended July 29, 2017. Cisco reported fourth quarter revenue of $12.1 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.4 billion or $0.48 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.1 billion or $0.61 per share.

"We had another strong quarter and a transformative year. We made tremendous progress transitioning our business to more software and recurring revenue and delivered on our commitment to accelerate innovation in our core and across the portfolio," said Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco. "The network has never been more critical to business success and we are building the network of the future."

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 delivered another solid quarter and fiscal year. We executed well, drove solid profitability, strong cash flow, and we continued to deliver on our strategic growth priorities," said Kelly Kramer, CFO, Cisco. "We will continue to focus on making the right bets to offer the most innovative technologies to our customers in the way they want to consume it and deliver value to our shareholders."

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

Q4 FY 2017 Highlights

Revenue -- Total revenue was $12.1 billion, down 4%, with product revenue down 5% and service revenue up 1%. 31% of total revenue was from recurring offers, up 4 percentage points from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas down 6%, EMEA down 6%, and APJC up 6%. Product revenue performance was led by Wireless and Security which increased 5% and 3%, respectively. NGN Routing and Switching revenue each decreased 9%. Service Provider Video, Data Center, and Collaboration revenue decreased 10%, 4%, and 3%, respectively.

Gross Margin -- On a GAAP basis, total gross margin and product gross margin were 62.2% and 60.3%, respectively. The decrease in the product gross margin compared with 62.2% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 was primarily due to pricing, partially offset by productivity improvements and to a lesser extent product mix.

Non-GAAP total gross margin and product gross margin were 63.7% and 61.9%, respectively. The decrease in non-GAAP product gross margin compared with 63.9% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 was also primarily due to pricing, partially offset by continued productivity improvements and to a lesser extent product mix.

GAAP service gross margin was 67.8% and non-GAAP service gross margin was 68.8%.

Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 64.0% for the Americas, 63.8% for EMEA and 62.1% for APJC.

Operating Expenses -- On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.5 billion, down 3%. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $3.9 billion, down 7%, and were 32.2% of revenue.

Operating Income -- GAAP operating income was $3.0 billion, down 8%, with GAAP operating margin of 25.0%. Non-GAAP operating income was $3.8 billion, down 4%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 31.5%.

Provision for Income Taxes -- The GAAP tax provision rate was 23.8%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 22.3%.

Net Income and EPS -- On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.4 billion and EPS was $0.48. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.1 billion, a decrease of 3%, and EPS was $0.61, a decrease of 3%.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities -- was $4.0 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, an increase of 5% compared with $3.8 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.

FY 2017 Highlights
The revenue and non-GAAP information in this section is presented excluding the SP Video CPE Business for fiscal 2016 as it was divested during the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015.

Revenue -- Total revenue was $48.0 billion, a decrease of 2%.

Net Income and EPS -- On a GAAP basis, net income was $9.6 billion and EPS was $1.90. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $12.1 billion, flat compared to fiscal 2016, and EPS was $2.39, an increase of 1%.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities -- was $13.9 billion for fiscal 2017, compared with $13.6 billion for fiscal 2016, an increase of 2%.

Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments -- were $70.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, compared with $68.0 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2017, and compared with $65.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2016. The total cash and cash equivalents and investments available in the United States at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 were $3.0 billion.

Deferred Revenue -- was $18.5 billion, up 12% in total, with deferred product revenue up 23%, driven largely by subscription-based and software offerings, and deferred service revenue was up 6%. The portion of product deferred revenue related to recurring software and subscription offers increased 50%.

Product Backlog -- was approximately $4.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2017, an increase of 3% compared with the balance at the end of fiscal 2016.

Capital Allocation -- In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Cisco declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.29 per common share, or $1.4 billion. For the full fiscal year, Cisco declared and paid cash dividends of $1.10 per common share, or $5.5 billion.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Cisco repurchased approximately 38 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $31.61 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $1.2 billion. For the full fiscal year, Cisco repurchased approximately 118 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $31.38 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $3.7 billion. As of July 29, 2017, Cisco had repurchased and retired 4.7 billion shares of Cisco common stock at an average price of $21.30 per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $100.3 billion since the inception of the stock repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is approximately $11.7 billion with no termination date.

For the full fiscal year, Cisco returned $9.2 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends.

Acquisitions -- In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, we closed the acquisition of MindMeld, Inc. and the acquisition of the advanced analytics team and associated intellectual property developed by Saggezza. We also announced our intent to acquire Viptela, Inc., a privately held company that provides software-defined wide area networking products, and Observable Networks, Inc., a privately held company that offers cloud-native network forensics security applications delivered as a service. Both acquisitions closed in the first quarter of fiscal 2018.

Business Outlook for Q1 FY 2018

Cisco expects to achieve the following results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018:

Cisco estimates that GAAP EPS will be $0.48 to $0.53 which is lower than non-GAAP EPS by $0.08 to $0.11 per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2018.

A reconciliation between the Business Outlook for Q1 FY 2018 on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is provided in the table entitled "GAAP to non-GAAP Business Outlook for Q1 FY 2018" located in the section entitled "Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures."

Editor's Notes:

• Q4 fiscal year 2017 conference call to discuss Cisco's results along with its business outlook will be held on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 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, August 16, 2017 to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, August 23, 2017 at 1-800-391-9851 (United States) or 1-203-369-3268 (international). The replay will also be available via webcast on the Cisco Investor Relations website at http://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, August 16, 2017. 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 http://investor.cisco.com.
  
  

During the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015, Cisco completed its divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business. SP Video CPE Business revenue for fiscal 2016 was $504 million.

⁽¹⁾ During the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015, Cisco completed its divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business. SP Video CPE Business revenue for fiscal 2016 was $504 million.

⁽¹⁾ During the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015, Cisco completed its divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business. This sale resulted in a pre-tax gain of $253 million, net of certain transaction costs incurred. The gain on this transaction was excluded from non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2016.

During the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015, Cisco completed its divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business. Accordingly, the non-GAAP growth rates above are normalized to exclude the SP Video CPE Business.

⁽¹⁾ Reflects four months of operations for the SP Video CPE Business, which was divested during the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015.

⁽¹⁾ In August 2016, we began taking action under a restructuring plan in order to reinvest in our key priority areas in which up to 6,600 employees would be impacted, with estimated pretax charges of approximately $850 million. During fiscal 2017, we have recognized pretax charges of $756 million to our GAAP financial results in relation to this restructuring plan. We expect this plan to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2018.

⁽²⁾ Estimated adjustments to GAAP earnings per share are shown after income tax effects.

Except as noted above, this business outlook does not include the effects of any future acquisitions/divestitures, asset impairments, restructurings 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 progress transitioning our business to more software and recurring revenue, our ability to accelerate innovation in our core and across the portfolio and to build the network of the future, our ability to deliver on our strategic growth priorities, our ability to offer the most innovative technologies to our customers in the way they want to consume it, and our continued ability to deliver value to our shareholders) and the future financial performance of Cisco (including the business outlook for Q1 FY 2018) 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: 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 routing, switching and services; the timing of orders and manufacturing and customer lead times; 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, intellectual property, antitrust, shareholder and other matters, and governmental investigations; our ability to achieve the benefits of the announced restructuring and possible changes in the size and timing of the related charges; man-made problems such as cyber-attacks, data protection breaches, computer viruses or terrorism; natural catastrophic events; a 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 May 23, 2017 and September 8, 2016, 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 months and the year ended July 29, 2017 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, 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 and other contingencies, significant gains and losses on 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.

Cisco divested the Customer Premises Equipment portion of the Service Provider Video Connected Devices business ("SP Video CPE Business") during the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015. This release includes, where indicated, financial measures that exclude the SP Video CPE Business. Cisco believes that the presentation of these 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 because the SP Video CPE Business is no longer part of Cisco and will not be part of Cisco on a go forward basis. Cisco's management also uses the financial measures excluding the SP Video CPE Business in reviewing the financial results of Cisco.

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