Latest news with #DavidHeger
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Cisco projects upbeat quarterly revenue as AI fuels networking equipment demand
Reuters Cisco Systems forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the artificial intelligence boom boosted demand for its networking equipment from cloud customers. Hyperscale cloud investments are healthy and driving IT infrastructure financing, which sets up a good backdrop for Cisco. "Within the enterprise spending environment, there is incremental spending to beef up the infrastructure to accommodate AI, so that could potentially be another growth driver, especially with Cisco having such a big presence in the traditional enterprise market," Edward Jones analyst David Heger said. Big tech firms such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are ramping up spending to ease capacity shortages that have limited their ability to meet AI demand, even after several quarters of multi-billion-dollar outlays. Cisco's AI infrastructure orders exceeded $800 million in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for fiscal 2025 to over $2 billion, more than double its original target, CEO Chuck Robbins said on a post-earnings call. The company has not seen any pull-forward in demand for products, but did note a small impact from tariffs in the quarter and during the fiscal year, he added. "We expect the sovereign AI opportunity to build momentum in the second half of fiscal 2026. Cisco will be a core system provider for these significant AI training and inference cluster build outs and integral to their development and eventual hyperscaling." Cisco has partnered with Humain, Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI company, and it will provide digital solutions for Bahrain's government information and telecommunications infrastructure. The company expects revenue to be between $14.65 billion and $14.85 billion for the first quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of $14.62 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Its revenue for the fourth quarter ended July 26 came in at $14.67 billion, compared with estimates of $14.62 billion. Networking product orders grew in the double digits during the quarter, driven by webscale infrastructure, switching, enterprise routing, industrial IoT and servers. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Tariffs, tantrums, and tech: How Trump's trade drama is keeping Indian IT on tenterhooks Good, bad, ugly: How will higher ethanol in petrol play out for you? As big fat Indian wedding slims to budget, Manyavar loses lustre As 50% US tariff looms, 6 key steps that can safeguard Indian economy Stock Radar: JSPL forms Ascending Triangle pattern on weekly charts, could hit fresh 52-week high soon Nifty and business are different species: 5 small-cap stocks from different sectors with upside potential of up to 30% F&O Radar | Deploy Bear Put Spread in Nifty to play index's negative stance amid volatility Wealth creation: Look beyond the obvious in some things; 10 fertilizer sector companies worth watching
Business Insider
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Apple tries to slap a 'glass' Band-Aid on its real problem
Apple's stock price has been bleeding this year, and it looks unlikely that the company's big "Liquid Glass" design overhaul will be anything more than a Band-Aid. Wall Street was largely unimpressed by the announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, where the company showed off its glass-like software design coming this fall to Apple's gadget lineup. While the sleek look has its fair share of early fans, the elephant in the room was Apple's continued challenges and delays in catching up in the AI race. Apple is known to take a slow-and-steady approach — "Not first, but best," as CEO Tim Cook likes to say — however, the jury's still out on whether the company's AI features, collectively called Apple Intelligence, can drive iPhone upgrades in a meaningful way. "Liquid Glass" was the main focus of Apple's keynote on Monday, while Siri, which is undergoing a much-needed overhaul that's been significantly delayed, barely got any screentime. (And when it did get mentioned, the stock took a dip shortly after, shedding $75 billion from Apple's market cap.) On the one hand, Apple might have learned its lesson from last year's WWDC, where it excitedly showed off the overhauled Siri and months later ran ads it later pulled featuring unreleased AI features after saying it needed "more time." So far, Wall Street analysts said Monday's announcements suggest a "transitional" and more "incremental" year for Apple, with no "killer" AI feature in sight. A more powerful Siri could be the feature that sparks the iPhone upgrade surge that Apple needs, Edward Jones analyst David Heger said in a note. "The silence surrounding Siri was deafening; the topic was swiftly brushed aside to some indeterminate time next year," Forrester's Dipanjan Chatterjee told Business Insider. The updates at WWDC were "incremental" and "unlikely to drive iPhone demand," analysts at UBS said in a note. As a result, the analysts said they believe "consensus iPhone revenue estimates over the next 4 quarters are too optimistic." Some analysts saw potential in some of Apple's newly announced AI-powered features that bring quality of life improvements, such as call screening and live translating. "Apple's artificial intelligence rollout has been protracted and still lacks better Siri integration, but we believe AI is helping Apple develop new and convenient features more quickly," William Kerwin, tech analyst at Morningstar, said in a note following WWDC. The Holy Grail for Apple would be a combination of must-have AI features coupled with a new iPhone form factor that spurs a so-called "super cycle" of upgrades in the fall when the iPhone 17 comes out. While it sounds like Apple has a slimmer iPhone Air in the works, it's still working to crack the code on AI features — leaving analysts doubtful of any super-cycle this fall. "We were not expecting much from the annual WWDC keynote, but were still slightly disappointed at the content and features announced today," Barclays analysts wrote. "We view changes to all device Operating Systems and Apple Intelligence as incremental, and not enough to drive any upgrade cycles."
