Core Viewpoint - Cisco's Q2 earnings report exceeded market expectations, driven by growth in AI business, but the stock fell due to lackluster profit margin guidance and conservative earnings forecast for the upcoming quarter [1][7]. Financial Performance - Q2 revenue increased by 10% year-over-year to $15.3 billion, surpassing the market expectation of $15.1 billion. Net profit rose from $2.43 billion to $3.18 billion, with adjusted EPS of $1.04, better than the expected $1.02 [3]. - AI infrastructure demand significantly boosted Cisco's core networking business, with orders from hyperscale data center providers reaching $2.1 billion, up from $1.3 billion in the previous quarter. Core networking revenue grew by 21% to $8.3 billion, exceeding analyst expectations of $7.9 billion [3]. Market Position and Strategy - Cisco's CEO Chuck Robbins stated the company is uniquely positioned to provide reliable infrastructure for the AI era, with expectations of $5 billion in AI orders from hyperscale data centers for the fiscal year 2026. Cisco announced a partnership with AMD for an AI infrastructure project in Saudi Arabia and launched new network switches featuring NVIDIA chips [5]. - The revenue contribution from "new cloud" providers is expected to become more significant in the second half of the fiscal year and even more so by fiscal year 2027 [6]. Profit Margin Concerns - Cisco's forecast for Q3 adjusted EPS is between $1.02 and $1.04, aligning with the market median of $1.03. However, the projected adjusted gross margin of 65.5% to 66.5% is significantly below the analyst average expectation of 68.2%, raising investor concerns [7]. - Following the earnings report, Cisco's stock dropped over 7%. The company faces challenges from storage chip shortages affecting multiple product lines and rising component costs due to high demand for NVIDIA GPUs [8]. Future Outlook - Cisco's revenue guidance for the upcoming quarter is projected between $15.4 billion and $15.6 billion, exceeding Wall Street's expectation of $15.2 billion. For the full fiscal year 2026, Cisco raised its revenue forecast to between $61.2 billion and $61.7 billion, corresponding to a growth rate of approximately 8.5%, with adjusted EPS expected between $4.13 and $4.17, surpassing previous estimates [9].
股价盘后大跌7%!思科财报超预期AI订单高增也难挡成本冲击! 存储芯片涨价成“利润杀手”!