Financial Summary
All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.
Q3 FY 2021 Highlights
Revenue — Total revenue was up 7% at $12.8 billion, with product revenue up 6% and service revenue up 8%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 2%, EMEA up 11%, and APJC up 19%. Product revenue performance was broad-based with growth in Security, up 13%, Infrastructure Platforms up 6%, and Applications up 5%.
Gross Margin — On a GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 63.9%, 62.6%, and 67.4%, respectively, as compared with 64.9%, 63.7%, and 67.7%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 66.0%, 64.9%, and 68.7%, respectively, as compared with 66.6%, 65.8%, and 68.9%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 66.5% for the Americas, 65.6% for EMEA and 64.7% for APJC.
Operating Expenses — On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.7 billion, up 8%, and were 36.9% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.1 billion, up 9%, and were 32.4% of revenue.
Operating Income — GAAP operating income was $3.5 billion, up 1%, with GAAP operating margin of 27.1%. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.3 billion, up 3%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 33.6%.
Provision for Income Taxes — The GAAP tax provision rate was 20.3%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 19.0%.
Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.9 billion, an increase of 3%, and EPS was $0.68, an increase of 5%. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.5 billion, an increase of 4%, and EPS was $0.83, an increase of 5%.
Cash Flow from Operating Activities — $3.9 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, a decrease of 8% compared with $4.2 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments — $23.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2021, compared with $29.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2020.
Deferred Revenue — $20.9 billion, up 12% in total, with deferred product revenue up 20%. Deferred service revenue was up 7%.
Remaining Performance Obligations — $28.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2021, up 10%.
Capital Allocation — In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, we returned $2.1 billion to stockholders through share buybacks and dividends. We declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.37 per common share, or $1.6 billion, and repurchased approximately 10 million shares of common stock under our stock repurchase program at an average price of $48.71 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $510 million. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under the program is $8.7 billion with no termination date.
Acquisitions
In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, we closed the following acquisitions:
| • | | 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. |
| • | | IMImobile PLC, a United Kingdom-based publicly-traded cloud communications software and services company. |
| • | | Dashbase, Inc., an enterprise software company. |
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, we closed the acquisition of Slido s.r.o, a privately held company that provides an audience interaction platform.
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