Skip to main content

Go Premium in Our Biggest Sale Ever

UPGRADE NOW
TipRanks
Go Ultimate75% OFF

Cisco Systems (CSCO) Q1 2027 Earnings Report

8 Followers

CH:CSCO Q1 2027 EPS Results

Actual EPS
CHF 1.17
Consensus EPS
CHF 1.11
Beat/Miss
Beat by +CHF 0.06
One Year Ago EPS
CHF 0.84

CH:CSCO Q1 2027 Revenue Results

Actual Revenue
CHF 15.53B
Expected Revenue
CHF 15.20B
Beat/Miss
Beat by +CHF 330.59M
YoY Revenue Growth
+24.42%

Earnings Announcement Details

Quarter
Q1 2027
Date
11/12/2026
Time
After Close
Conference Call
Thursday, November 12, 2026
CH:CSCO Upcoming Earnings

Cisco Systems's next earnings date is estimated for February 17, 2027, based on past reporting schedules.

Q1 2027 Earnings Call Audio

CH:CSCO Q1 2027 Earnings Call
0:00 / 0:00

Q1 2027 Earnings Slide Deck

Q1 2027 Earnings Call Summary

Q1 2027
Earnings Call Date:Nov 12, 2026|% Change Since:-4.27%|
Earnings Call Sentiment|Positive

The call was strongly positive. Cisco reported record revenue, EPS, cash flow and orders, raised fiscal 2027 guidance, and described broad-based momentum across networking, AI infrastructure, security, sovereign infrastructure and software. The main negatives were lower gross margins due to hardware mix and memory costs, limited services growth, optics supply constraints and lower visibility with tougher comparisons in the second half. These challenges were explicitly acknowledged but were outweighed by the company's record results, strong order growth and raised outlook.

Company Guidance

For fiscal Q2, Cisco expects revenue to be in the range of $18 billion to $18.2 billion, non-GAAP gross margin to be in the range of 65% to 66%, non-GAAP operating margin to be in the range of 36% to 37%, non-GAAP earnings per share to range from $1.34 to $1.36, and a non-GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 18.5%; for fiscal year '27, it expects revenue to be in the range of $74.8 billion to $75.8 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share to range from $5.47 to $5.53, with AI infrastructure revenue projected to grow to $9 billion, more than double fiscal year '26 levels, AI hyperscale revenue expected to represent 12% of total revenue, up from 6% in FY '26, revenue per employee expected to increase by approximately 19%, and operating margin expected to increase from 34.8% in FY '26 to an expected 36% in FY '27.

  • Record Q1 Revenue and EarningsCisco reported record quarterly revenue of $18.5 billion, up 24% year-over-year, and record non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.40, up 40% year-over-year. Management said these were the company's strongest top- and bottom-line growth rates in over 15 years.
  • Strong Operating Leverage and Cash GenerationNon-GAAP operating margin rose to 37.8%, while operating cash flow was $4.4 billion, up 36% year-over-year. Management cited strong operating leverage, disciplined expense management and enhanced earnings power.
  • Raised Fiscal 2027 GuidanceCisco significantly increased its fiscal 2027 outlook, expecting revenue of $74.8 billion to $75.8 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $5.47 to $5.53. Management described this as an acceleration from fiscal 2026 growth of 12% for revenue and 14% for EPS to approximately 19% and 27%, respectively.
  • Broad-Based Product Revenue GrowthTotal product revenue was $14.7 billion, up 32% year-over-year. Networking revenue accelerated to 43% growth, led by triple-digit AI infrastructure growth and double-digit growth in data center switching and campus networking. Security revenue increased 7%, and collaboration revenue increased 8%.
  • Strong Product Order Momentum Across MarketsTotal product orders grew 21% year-over-year, following 13% growth a year earlier. Orders excluding hyperscalers increased 14%, with double-digit growth across all geographies and customer markets. Enterprise orders rose 15%, public sector orders rose 13%, and service provider and cloud orders grew 47%.
  • Geographic and Customer-Market StrengthProduct orders increased 18% in the Americas, 12% in EMEA and 57% in APJC. APJC growth was broad-based, including enterprise growth above 30%, public sector growth above 70% and triple-digit service provider and cloud growth. Management also cited strong results in Japan, China, Singapore, Korea and Australia.
  • Networking Super-Cycle MomentumNetworking product orders grew 28% in Q1, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Double-digit growth was reported across service provider routing, compute, enterprise routing, wireless, data center switching and campus switching. Management said it believes Cisco is in the early stages of a multiyear, multibillion-dollar networking super cycle.
  • AI Infrastructure Growth and Hyperscaler WinsAI infrastructure revenue is projected to reach $9 billion in fiscal 2027, more than double fiscal 2026 levels and up from the prior target of $7.5 billion. Cisco secured three new AI design wins in Q1, including two P200-powered systems and data center interconnect wins and one 1.6 Terabit optics win. Cisco has recorded 18 AI design wins over the last five quarters.
  • Expansion Across AI Customer SegmentsCisco reported accelerated AI infrastructure order growth from neocloud, sovereign and enterprise customers. Nexus data center switches tagged for AI deployments increased 47% year-over-year. Management also said that enterprise data center networking has delivered double-digit order growth in nine of the last 11 quarters.
  • Silicon One and Optics ProgressIn the hyperscaler AI business, platforms other than optics are 100% Silicon One-based. Cisco said Silicon One is beginning to be implemented in portions of its enterprise networking portfolio, with its fiscal 2029 target for full conversion still on track. Optics generated a record Q1 and reached a $1 billion quarterly revenue level in the prior quarter.
  • Campus and Industrial IoT DemandCampus networking product orders grew 14% year-over-year, and management said the next-generation portfolio is ramping faster than prior product launches. Industrial IoT orders grew approximately 50% year-over-year and have now grown at double-digit rates for 10 consecutive quarters.
  • Security Momentum Excluding SplunkSecurity orders excluding Splunk grew in the mid-teens, while core Cisco Security orders excluding Splunk increased 15%, which management described as the best performance in approximately three years. Firewall orders grew more than 30% for the third consecutive quarter.
  • Growth in Zero Trust and AI DefenseCisco's Zero Trust secure access portfolio reached 5,400 customers after adding almost 800 customers in Q1. Cisco AI Defense was protecting more than 2 trillion tokens per month and was approaching 500 customers. Cisco also announced integration of Anthropic's Claude Mythos cybersecurity model into Cisco AI Defense for adaptive AI red teaming.
  • Splunk and Security Platform DevelopmentManagement said Splunk is being used as a common data platform to monitor agent behavior, enforce guardrails and help customers manage tokenomics. Cisco is also exploring, with a leading hyperscaler, how AI agents can help security teams investigate threats and coordinate responses while keeping analysts in control.
  • Cloud Control and Cisco IQ AdoptionMore than 6,000 customers have signed up for Cisco Cloud Control since its launch. Cisco IQ had more than 17,000 customers, nearly doubling quarter-over-quarter, and provided visibility into 23 million devices while accelerating vulnerability tracking from days to minutes.
  • Sovereign Infrastructure ExpansionCisco expanded its Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio from Europe to Canada, with additional countries to follow. The portfolio spans networking, security, compute, collaboration and observability and can be configured for on-premise, air-gapped environments. Cisco also announced AMD GPU-based AI infrastructure built on Silicon One systems is in production in Saudi Arabia with AMD and HUMAIN.
  • AI Infrastructure Partnerships and Product RoadmapCisco announced a partnership with Supermicro to integrate high-density, liquid- and air-cooled compute into an NVIDIA cloud partner-compliant full-stack architecture. Cisco also plans to develop the USFP optical module with NVIDIA, which is expected to deliver 4x the bandwidth density and 1.3x the power efficiency of current models. The multi-rail system is expected in the first few months of calendar 2027.
  • Quantum-Safe and Intelligent Workplace InnovationCisco expanded Live Protect across more of its campus networking portfolio, extended quantum readiness to WiFi 7 access points and plans to provide quantum-safe communications across most of its core portfolio by the end of calendar 2026. Cisco also launched Claude Managed Agents and Dialog, an agentic harness in Webex, and provided an AI agent for every employee at the start of fiscal 2027.
  • Recurring Revenue and Software MetricsTotal remaining performance obligations were $46.2 billion, up 8% year-over-year, with product RPO up 7%. Total annual recurring revenue was $32.7 billion, up 4%, and product ARR also increased 4%. Subscription revenue represented 44% of total revenue, while total software revenue was $6.1 billion, up 8%.
  • Capital Returns and Balance SheetCisco ended Q1 with $15.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments. The company returned $3.7 billion to shareholders through $1.7 billion in dividends and $2.0 billion in share repurchases, representing 95% of free cash flow. Cisco had $6.1 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization.
  • Efficiency and Headcount ProductivityTotal headcount declined by a low single-digit percentage, while expected fiscal 2027 revenue per employee is projected to increase approximately 19% based on updated guidance. Management said Cisco expects to generate $19 billion in incremental revenue over two years with less headcount than it had at the beginning of that period.
  • Strategic Investment and AcquisitionCisco said it remains focused on organic innovation and complementary M&A while maintaining disciplined spend management. During Q1, the company closed its acquisition of WideField Security to accelerate Splunk Agentic SOC capabilities and help stop identity threats at machine speed.
  • Supply Availability and Capacity PlanningManagement said Cisco feels good about supply across silicon, PCBs, power supplies, memory and optics and has entered into long-term strategic supply agreements, including a new multiyear memory agreement. Cisco said it expects to meet its raised fiscal 2027 guidance and could likely meet stronger demand if it materializes.
  • Second-Quarter OutlookFor fiscal Q2, Cisco expects revenue of $18.0 billion to $18.2 billion, non-GAAP gross margin of 65% to 66%, non-GAAP operating margin of 36% to 37% and non-GAAP EPS of $1.34 to $1.36. The company assumes a non-GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 18.5%.

CH:CSCO Earnings History

CH:CSCO earnings history
Report DateFiscal QuarterForecast / EPSLast Year's EPSEPS YoY ChangePress Release
Feb 17, 20272027 (Q2)1.12-0.87――
Nov 12, 20262027 (Q1)1.111.170.8440.00% (+0.34)
Aug 12, 20262026 (Q4)0.981.020.8323.23% (+0.19)
May 13, 20262026 (Q3)0.870.890.8110.42% (+0.08)
Feb 11, 20262026 (Q2)0.860.870.7910.64% (+0.08)
Nov 13, 20252026 (Q1)0.820.840.769.89% (+0.08)
Aug 14, 20252025 (Q4)0.820.830.7313.79% (+0.10)
May 14, 20252025 (Q3)0.770.810.749.09% (+0.07)
Feb 12, 20252025 (Q2)0.760.790.738.05% (+0.06)
Nov 13, 20242025 (Q1)0.730.760.93-18.02% (-0.17)

The table shows recent earnings report dates and whether the forecast was beat or missed. See the change in forecast and EPS from the previous year.

Beat Missed