Cisco stock pops on Q3 earnings beat

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Cisco just reported its third quarter earnings and we're examining them now.

It reported:

EPS Q3 EPS $0.57 versus expectations of $0.55, that's a beat.

Revenue of $12 billion versus expectations of $11.97 billion, another slight beat.

Investors are also happy with Cisco's solid guidance.

It expects the next quarter to show 0%-3% Y/Y growth (which excludes the set-top business that Cisco sold) and EPS of $0.59-$0.61. Analysts were expecting actual revenue to decline 3.3% and EPS of $0.58.

The stock is up about 5% in after hours trading.

Here's the full press release.

Cisco Reports Third Quarter Earnings

Solid Quarter Driven by Strong Execution; Continued Strong Margins and Momentum in Growth Areas

• Q3 Revenue : $12.0 billion
  • Growth of 3% year over year -- Q3 guidance was 1% to 4% growth year over year (normalized to exclude the SP Video CPE Business for Q3 2015)
• Q3 Earnings per Share: $0.46 GAAP; $0.57 non-GAAP
• Q4 Guidance:
  • Revenue: 0% - 3% growth year over year (normalized to exclude the SP Video CPE Business for Q4 2015)
  • Earnings per Share: GAAP $0.48 - $0.53; Non-GAAP: $0.59 to $0.61

Cisco today reported third quarter results for the period ended April 30, 2016. Cisco reported third quarter revenue of$12.0 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.3 billion or $0.46 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.9 billion or $0.57 per share.

"We delivered a strong Q3, executing well despite the challenging environment," said Chuck Robbins, Cisco chief executive officer. "I'm pleased with our performance today as well as the progress we're making in transitioning our business to a more software and subscription focus, which we'll continue to apply across our entire portfolio."

The third quarter of fiscal 2016 had 14 weeks compared with 13 weeks in the third quarter of fiscal 2015.
A reconciliation between net income and EPS on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is provided in the table following the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Supplementary information related to other GAAP and non-GAAP measures is also provided in the tables following.

"Once again we delivered a solid quarter in Q3, with 3% top line growth, and even faster non-GAAP EPS growth and strong margins," said Kelly Kramer, Cisco executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We executed well on our financial strategy, allowing us to invest in our business model transition to software and recurring revenues so that our customers are able to consume Cisco technology in the way that is best for their business."

Financial Highlights for Q3 Fiscal 2016
All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.

All revenue, non-GAAP, and geographic financial information in this "Financial Highlights for Q3 Fiscal 2016" section are presented excluding the SP Video CPE Business for prior periods as it was divested during the second quarter of fiscal 2016 on November 20, 2015.

Revenue -- Revenue was $12.0 billion, up 3% with product revenue up 1% and service revenue up 11%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 4%, EMEA down 2%, and APJC up 10%. Product revenue growth was led by Security, Collaboration and SP Video which increased by 17%, 10% and 18%, respectively. Wireless and Data Centereach increased by 1%, while Switching and NGN Routing decreased by 3% and 5%, respectively.

Gross Margin -- On a GAAP basis, total gross margin and product gross margin were 64.3% and 63.8%, respectively. The increase in the product gross margin compared with 61.6% in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 was primarily due to continued productivity improvements and the divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business, partially offset by pricing and to a lesser extent product mix.

Non-GAAP total gross margin and product gross margin were 65.2% and 64.5%, respectively. The non-GAAP product gross margin was unchanged compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2015 as continued productivity improvements were offset by pricing and to a lesser extent product mix.

GAAP service margin was 65.9% and non-GAAP service gross margin was 67.1%.

Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 66.3% for the Americas, 65.5% for EMEA and 60.4% for APJC.

Operating Expenses -- On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.7 billion, up 3%. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.2 billion, up 4%, and at 35.2% of revenue. Headcount compared with the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2016 increased by 1,447 to 73,104, driven by additional headcount from acquisitions and investments in key growth areas such as security, cloud and software.

Operating Income -- GAAP operating income was $3.0 billion, up 2%, with GAAP operating margin of 24.9%. Non-GAAP operating income was $3.6 billion, up 5%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 30.0%.

Provision for Income Taxes -- The GAAP tax provision rate was 23.8%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 22.0%.

Net Income and EPS -- On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.3 billion and EPS was $0.46. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $2.9 billion, an increase of 4%, and EPS was $0.57, an increase of 6%.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities -- was $3.1 billion an increase of 1% compared with $3.0 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2015.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments -- were $63.5 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2016, compared with $60.4 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2016, and compared with $60.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2015. The total cash and cash equivalents and investments available in the United States at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2016 were $6.3 billion.

Deferred Revenue -- was $15.3 billion, up 8% in total, with deferred product revenue up 9%, driven largely by subscription-based and software offerings, and deferred service revenue up 7%. Cisco continued to build a greater mix of recurring revenue as reflected in deferred revenue.

Days Sales Outstanding in Accounts Receivable (DSO) -- was 33 days at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2016, compared with 33 days at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2016, and compared with 37 days at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2015.

Other Financial Highlights
In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, Cisco declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.26 per common share, or $1.3 billion. For the third quarter of fiscal 2016, Cisco repurchased approximately 27 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $24.08 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $649 million.

As of April 30, 2016, Cisco had repurchased and retired 4.6 billion shares of Cisco common stock at an average price of$20.99 per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $95.8 billion since the inception of the stock repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is approximately $16.2 billion with no termination date.

Acquisitions

During the third quarter of fiscal 2016, Cisco completed the following acquisitions:

Jasper Technologies -- provides a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) service platform to help enterprises and service providers launch, manage and monetize IoT services on a global scale.
Acano -- provides on-premises and cloud-based video infrastructure and collaboration software.
Synata -- will enable us to deliver search capabilities for collaboration cloud applications.
Leaba -- a fabless semiconductor company whose semiconductor expertise is expected to help to accelerate Cisco'snext generation product portfolio and bring new capabilities to the market faster.
CliQr -- provides an application-defined cloud orchestration platform that is expected to help Cisco customers simplify and accelerate their private, public and hybrid cloud deployments.

Business Outlook for Q4 Fiscal 2016
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 fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 as follows:

Share-based compensation expense is expected to impact Cisco's results of operations in similar proportions as the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Amortization of purchased intangible assets and other acquisition-related/divestiture costs will be reported as GAAP operating expenses, cost of sales, or other income/(loss) as applicable. Except as noted above, this guidance does not include the effects of any future acquisitions/divestitures, asset impairments, restructurings and tax or other events, which may or may not be significant unless specifically stated.

On November 20, 2015, during the second quarter of fiscal 2016, Cisco completed its divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business. In order to provide a clear view of Cisco's continuing expected financial performance, the revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 is normalized to exclude the SP Video CPE Business for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. The corresponding revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 for the SP Video CPE Business was $487 million.
Cisco expects to achieve the following results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016:

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