Cisco reports narrow earnings beat, issues inline forecast for the year

In this articleCSCO your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTCisco CEO Chuck Robbins speaks at the Roundtable CEO Workforce Forum in Washington on June 17, 2025.Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesCisco reported results on Wednesday that narrowly exceeded analysts' expectations and issued quarterly guidance that was also better than expected.Here's how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:Earnings per : 99 cents adjusted vs. 98 cents expectedRevenue: $14.67 billion vs. $14.62 billion expectedRevenue increased 7.6% year over year in the quarter, which on July 26, according to a statement

The LSEG consensus was for earnings of $4.03 a and $59.53 billion in revenue."While we have some clarity on tariffs, we are still operating in a complex environment," Mark Patterson, Cisco's finance chief, said on a conference call with analysts.In the fiscal fourth quarter, Cisco generated $7.63 billion in networking revenue, up 12%

Analysts polled by StreetAccount were looking for $7.34 billion.Cisco's security revenue for the quarter totaled $1.95 billion, up 9% and trailing the StreetAccount estimate of $2.11 billion.During the quarter, Cisco said it would collaborate with a partnership to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure, alongside BlackRock, Microsoft and other companies

It joined a Stargate data center initiative for the Middle East that involves OpenAI and SoftBank

And the company introduced switches and routers that can take on AI workloads.Cisco is in the planning phase on sovereign infrastructure jects, CEO Chuck Robbins said on the call."We have not taken any orders from them yet," he said. "We've been in the planning phases with them

They're obviously working through getting the licenses for the GPUs."AI infrastructure orders from web companies in the quarter reached $800 million, Robbins said

The total for the 2025 fiscal year was over $2 billion, more than double the company's goal, he said. $1 billion of those orders for the fiscal year were earmarked for back-end networks that connect graphics cessing units, Robbins said.Cisco's AI infrastructure sales pipeline from enterprises is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, he said."I don't feel AI's a fleeting trend," Robbins said.At market close on Wednesday, Cisco s are up 19% in 2025, while the S&P 500 has gained 10%.WATCH: Tal Liani: We are in an infrastructure cycle boom driven by AI and data growthwatch now2:3602:36Tal Liani: We are in an infrastructure cycle boom driven by AI and data growthWorldwide Exchange