Cisco Increases Quarterly Cash Dividend
Cisco declared a quarterly dividend of $0.37 per common share, a $0.01 increase or up 3% over the previous quarter’s dividend, to be paid on April 28, 2021 to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 6, 2021. Future dividends will be subject to Board approval.
Financial Summary
All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.
Q2 FY 2021 Highlights
Revenue — Total revenue was flat at $12.0 billion, with product revenue down 1% and service revenue up 2%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas down 1%, EMEA up 2%, and APJC down 4%. Product revenue was led by growth in Security, up 10%. Infrastructure Platforms was down 3% and Applications was flat.
Gross Margin — On a GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 65.1%, 64.5%, and 66.6%, respectively, as compared with 64.7%, 63.9%, and 66.6%, respectively, in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 66.9%, 66.6%, and 67.9%, respectively, as compared with 66.4%, 65.9%, and 67.7%, respectively, in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 67.5% for the Americas, 66.9% for EMEA and 64.8% for APJC.
Operating Expenses — On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.6 billion, up 4%, and were 38.1% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $3.9 billion, down 1%, and were 32.6% of revenue.
Operating Income — GAAP operating income was $3.2 billion, down 5%, with GAAP operating margin of 26.9%. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.1 billion, up 2%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 34.4%.
Provision for Income Taxes — The GAAP tax provision rate was 21.8%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 19.0%.
Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.5 billion, a decrease of 12%, and EPS was $0.60, a decrease of 12%. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.4 billion, an increase of 2%, and EPS was $0.79, an increase of 3%.
Cash Flow from Operating Activities — $3.0 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, a decrease of 22% compared with $3.8 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments — $30.6 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2021, compared with $29.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2020.
Deferred Revenue — $20.8 billion, up 12% in total, with deferred product revenue up 16%. Deferred service revenue was up 9%.
Remaining Performance Obligations — $28.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2021, up 13%.
Capital Allocation — In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we returned $2.3 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. We declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.36 per common share, or $1.5 billion, and repurchased approximately 19 million shares of common stock under our stock repurchase program at an average price of $42.82 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $801 million. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under the program is $9.2 billion with no termination date.
Acquisitions
In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we closed the acquisition of Portshift, a privately held applications security solutions company, and the acquisition of assets and the team of Banzai Cloud Zrt., a company that specializes in deploying cloud-native applications.
In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we announced an amendment to the definitive merger agreement under which we previously agreed to acquire Acacia Communications, Inc., a public fabless semiconductor company that develops, manufactures and sells high-speed coherent optical interconnect products that are designed to transform communications networks through improvements in performance, capacity and cost. Under the terms of the amended agreement, Cisco would acquire Acacia for $115 per share in cash, or for approximately $4.5 billion on a fully diluted basis, net of cash and marketable securities. The acquisition is expected to close during the third quarter of fiscal 2021, subject to closing conditions, including Acacia stockholder approval. All required regulatory approvals have been received.
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