Cisco Stock Jumps on Revenue Beat and Raised Guidance Forecast

Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) reported better-than-expected revenue in its third-quarter earnings announcement and raised its full-year revenue guidance. The company's revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 was $12.7 billion, a 13% year-over-year decline but higher than analysts anticipated. Net income came in at $1.88 billion or 46 cents per share, down from $3.21 billion or 78 cents per share in the year-ago quarter, and below expectations. However, adjusted earnings per share stripping out one-time items came in at 88 cents, beating expectations, though that figure also represented a decline from the year-ago period.

Cisco ( CSCO ) completed its acquisition of Splunk, an enterprise data infrastructure solutions provider, during the quarter, which had a positive impact on Cisco's revenue but negatively impacted its earnings. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $53.6 billion and $53.8 billion, up from the range of $51.5 billion to $52.5 billion it issued in the second quarter and above the $53.24 billion analysts projected. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said that the company's "unique ability to bring together networking, security, observability, and data enables Cisco to offer our customers unrivaled digital resilience for the AI era."

Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) shares rose about 4% before the bell on Thursday after an upbeat fourth-quarter forecast signaled further stabilization in networking equipment demand and benefits from its $28 billion deal for cybersecurity firm Splunk. The world's largest networking equipment maker (CSCO.O), opens new tab), had struggled with sluggish demand as customers adjusted piled up inventory from frenetic buying during the pandemic and lingering supply-chain snags.

Cisco ( CSCO ) was set to add almost $8 billion to its market value on Thursday if premarket gains held. The company is expected to benefit from the billions of dollars U.S. technology giants such as Microsoft and Meta Platforms are spending on data centers to support chatbots like ChatGPT, which need heavy computing power.

Cisco ( CSCO ) raised its 2024 revenue forecast to a range of $53.6 billion to $53.8 billion, from its previous expectations for a range of $51.5 billion to $52.5 billion.