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Networking and data center systems maker Cisco Systems reported its Q3 2015 earnings May 13, and it was generally good news for investors.
The San Jose, Calif. IT giant exceeded earnings estimates for the fifth time in a row, banking revenues of $12.14 billion, which outflanked analysts’ projection of $12.06 billion in sales.
Revenue was up a decent 5 percent year over year and out-performed the high end of Cisco’s guidance of $12.12 billion. The company’s gross margin of 62.5 percent also outdid the 61-62 percent the company offered in previous guidance.
The stock closed up 0.4 percent at $29.35 on May 13.
“We believe we are pulling away from our competition using the same formula we’ve always used: integrating our industry-leading products in every category into architectures and solutions that deliver real outcomes,” Chairman and CEO John Chambers said in a press statement. “We’ve created this opportunity, and it is ours to execute.”
Profit amounted to $2.8 billion in the quarter, up 5.9 percent from the year-ago period.
Taking a longer-view look at the financials, Cisco’s income for the first nine months of fiscal 2015 was $36.3 billion, compared with $34.8 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2014. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2015 was $6.7 billion or $1.29 per share, compared with $5.6 billion or $1.06 per share for the first nine months of fiscal 2014.
Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2015 was $8.3 billion, compared with $8.0 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2014.
It was a busy three months for the networking giant. Cisco released a research report indicating that the adoption of Internet of Everything (IoE) strategies by the oil and gas industry could fuel a U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increase of up to 0.8 percent, or $816 billion, over 10 years.
Cisco is investing in the potentially gargantuan IoT market in a big way.
The company opened an IoE Innovation Center in Berlin that unveiled a new asset management solution less than six months after opening its doors. It also launched Connected Roadways, a suite of validated solutions using the IoE that connect disparate transportation systems to increase safety, reduce roadside incidents, improve traffic flow and provide a centralized view of highway systems in a highly secure manner.
Cisco introduced Cisco Collaborative Knowledge, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) package designed to help its customers invigorate their organizations and empower employees with the digital tools and technology needed to access experts, learning and knowledge in real time.
Finally, Cisco announced three significant enhancements to the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network (EPN) portfolio, an open, elastic, and application-centric network infrastructure framework that helps enable service providers to accelerate time-to-revenue while reducing the costs of deploying new services.