Latest news with #MarkPatterson
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cisco AI infrastructure orders top $2B
This story was originally published on CFO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Cisco Systems recorded more than $800 million in AI infrastructure orders for its fourth quarter, bringing total orders for its full fiscal 2025 to more than $2 billion — topping its original $1 billion target, the company said Wednesday. San Jose, California-based Cisco, which provides networking equipment and software, including 'AI-native' data center infrastructure tools, also saw $1 billion in revenues related to its AI orders for the full year, finance chief Mark Patterson said Wednesday during his first earnings call after taking the CFO seat on July 27. The company will also continue to focus on making 'strategic investments in innovation to capitalize on the significant growth opportunities we see ahead,' Patterson said. 'This will continue to be underpinned by disciplined spend management.' Dive Insight: Previously Cisco's chief strategy officer, Patterson — a 25-year veteran of the company — succeeded Scott Herron in the role. Herron, who served as Cisco's CFO for five years, is set to remain with the business as a strategic advisor until May 1, 2026, CFO Dive previously reported. As finance chief, Patterson's goal is to 'make sure that we're funded for success,' he said in response to an analyst question regarding CFO priorities following the switch. 'I also think in terms of expectations of me, you can expect that I will be focused on durable profitable growth, obviously, financial discipline and transparency and really just returning value to the shareholders,' he said. AI remains a key growth area for the technology giant, with Cisco moving to ensure it is 'well positioned to provide the critical infrastructure needed for the AI era,' CEO Charles Robbins said. The over $800 million in AI orders for the quarter ended July 26 — compared to more than $600 million in such orders the previous quarter — 'demonstrates the undeniable capability and relevance of our technology for multiple back-end use cases with some of the most technologically advanced customers,' Robbins said. Cisco is 'seeing clear demand for our technology across customer markets in addition to expanded opportunities as we move towards agentic AI,' he said of the company's AI strategy. 'We are innovating faster than ever before, making AI foundational in our designs, fusing security deep into our networking products and providing operational simplicity for our customers.' For its Q4, Cisco reported non-GAAP income of $4 billion, while total gross margin on a non-GAAP basis reached 66% for the quarter, according to the earnings results. Its operating expenses on a non-GAAP basis were up by 4% year-over-year, reaching $5 billion. For fiscal 2026, Cisco is expecting full-year revenues of $59 billion to $60 billion, Patterson said. The CFO also highlighted the potential impact of tariffs on Cisco's coming fiscal year, noting current guidance for its Q1 and fiscal year 2026 assumes current tariffs and exemptions will remain in place until the end of that fiscal year. That includes a 30% levy on China, with exemptions for semiconductors and certain electronic components, as well as a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and 35% on goods from Canada, he said. Cisco is also expecting a 'small impact from tariffs on copper, steel and aluminum and retaliatory tariffs,' he said. Recommended Reading Wise CFO credits customer growth for 280% profit jump Sign in to access your portfolio
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Rural minister on ‘listening tour'
Minister of Rural Communities Mark Patterson speaks at an open forum in Gore, joined by NZ First outreach adviser Kym McDonald. PHOTO: ELLA SCOTT-FLEMING Industry, energy, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence were the hot topics at an NZ First minister's open forum in Gore yesterday. Minister of Rural Communities Mark Patterson held a public meeting at the Gore Town & Country Club on Friday afternoon to connect with the issues of Southland. The minister said, though it sounded a bit "namby pamby", he was on a "listening tour" to gather feedback for his party to use to build policy for the next election. In his opening speech, he spoke of the similarities — and differences — of the coalition government, its endeavour to get rid of the "red and green tape" and the last government's mistakes. The three parties agreed "pretty much" on the bigger picture, but NZ First were more at the "interventionist" end, making things happen, he said. Interventions included the $1.2billion Regional Infrastructure Fund developed by himself and Shane Jones. The economy, inflation and cost-of-living crisis were the fault of the previous Labour Party government, he said. "[It] is a sort of direct impact of some really, really bad-quality spending towards the tail end of the last government." Southland had been going "gangbusters" in terms of industry growth, Mr Patterson said. Datagrid NZ's proposed data centre in Makarewa would be a "massive opportunity" for Southland. But he received pushback from the crowd, one member of the community expressing concerns about the "enormous" amounts of power such centres needed. Data centres generated a lot of heat which took power to cool down, and had surges needing random bursts of power, which all cost, the man said. He did not want to see that cost subsidised by the general public. Mr Patterson said he was apprehensive at first about the centres too, but he had come around. There was potential for 500-600 jobs, as the project sized up, 10ha of greenhouses using the industrial heat and up to 3500 jobs in auxiliary surrounding businesses. "That's the modelling they've put to us." Concerns around the proposed deregulation of genetic engineering and modification were also brought up, as were Mr Jones' recent comments denouncing the proposal. Mr Patterson said Mr Jones had made comments on the proposed deregulation of genetic engineering at a meeting in Hutt Valley last week, but the crowd's applause had drowned out some of his qualifying remarks. The Gene Technology Bill, which passed its first reading in Parliament last December, remains a contentious issue. Mr Patterson said NZ First supporters remained sceptical and that the party had received significant public feedback on the matter. Dr William Rolleston, a strong supporter of the Bill who was attending the meeting in Gore, recalled Mr Jones' warning about not allowing "Frankenstein" into the environment. Addressing public concerns about consumer and health authority reactions to GMO use in farming, Dr Rolleston assured that no genetic modifications had faced health authority objections and emphasised that farmers grew GM crops only where there was market demand. "Farmers wouldn't grow GM crops if they didn't think there was a market for it," the doctor said. Mr Patterson declined to comment further, citing the Bill's current status before the parliamentary committee.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cisco CFO sees big AI opportunities despite concerns about slowing core growth
Cisco (CSCO) is betting on the AI boom as it faces potential pressures in its networking and security units. 'AI is really the biggest driver in terms of the overall umbrella,' CFO Mark Patterson said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. Cisco reported stronger-than-expected earnings and guidance. Q4 revenue rose 8% year over year to $14.7 billion, surpassing the $14.63 billion estimate. Adjusted EPS increased 14% year to $0.99, beating the $0.98 consensus, according to Bloomberg data. For fiscal year 2026, Cisco is expecting revenue between $59 billion and $60 billion, with adjusted EPS of $4.00 to $4.06. However, Cisco's stock is facing some headwinds as concerns mount about its slowing momentum in its core networking business and lower growth in its security division. Shares have slipped about 1% since the report. They are up 17% year to date, ahead of the S&P 500's (^GSPC) 10% gain. Cisco's core networking business grew 12% in the most recent quarter, signaling healthy demand despite broader concerns. "That's frankly ... where a lot of the tailwinds are today that we're seeing," Patterson said. For security, Patterson said demand hasn't slowed since Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk closed in 2024. Its revenue increased 9% in the quarter, and Patterson noted it added over 300 customers in both Q3 and Q4. "I think that we've got a better, more complete offering for our customers," he said. But AI is the name of the game. Patterson said fourth quarter revenue growth got a major lift from soaring demand for AI infrastructure, particularly large-scale AI training systems. Orders from webscale customers for these projects more than doubled the company's original target. 'We took over $800 million in orders in the quarter,' he said, adding the bigger prize lies in the years ahead as everyday customers start adopting AI. 'For us, the enterprise space is still very nascent, but we think [it] will ultimately be a larger opportunity than what we're seeing in the training build-outs with hyperscale." Patterson, a 25-year Cisco veteran, emphasized there's a need for companies to upgrade both their networking and security systems to meet the demands of AI. He said Cisco is undergoing a "campus refresh," or replacement of outdated equipment at customer sites. On the macro front, tariffs were a 'slight headwind in Q4 and also for FY 25,' Patterson said. While he didn't specify the financial impact, he noted Cisco was able to offset much of the effect thanks to its global supply chain. Francisco Velasquez is a Reporter at Yahoo Finance. He can be reached on LinkedIn and X, or via email at Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cisco CFO sees big AI opportunities despite concerns about slowing core growth
Cisco (CSCO) is betting on the AI boom as it faces potential pressures in its networking and security units. 'AI is really the biggest driver in terms of the overall umbrella,' CFO Mark Patterson said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. Cisco reported stronger-than-expected earnings and guidance. Q4 revenue rose 8% year over year to $14.7 billion, surpassing the $14.63 billion estimate. Adjusted EPS increased 14% year to $0.99, beating the $0.98 consensus, according to Bloomberg data. For fiscal year 2026, Cisco is expecting revenue between $59 billion and $60 billion, with adjusted EPS of $4.00 to $4.06. However, Cisco's stock is facing some headwinds as concerns mount about its slowing momentum in its core networking business and lower growth in its security division. Shares have slipped about 1% since the report. They are up 17% year to date, ahead of the S&P 500's (^GSPC) 10% gain. Cisco's core networking business grew 12% in the most recent quarter, signaling healthy demand despite broader concerns. "That's frankly ... where a lot of the tailwinds are today that we're seeing," Patterson said. For security, Patterson said demand hasn't slowed since Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk closed in 2024. Its revenue increased 9% in the quarter, and Patterson noted it added over 300 customers in both Q3 and Q4. "I think that we've got a better, more complete offering for our customers," he said. But AI is the name of the game. Patterson said fourth quarter revenue growth got a major lift from soaring demand for AI infrastructure, particularly large-scale AI training systems. Orders from webscale customers for these projects more than doubled the company's original target. 'We took over $800 million in orders in the quarter,' he said, adding the bigger prize lies in the years ahead as everyday customers start adopting AI. 'For us, the enterprise space is still very nascent, but we think [it] will ultimately be a larger opportunity than what we're seeing in the training build-outs with hyperscale." Patterson, a 25-year Cisco veteran, emphasized there's a need for companies to upgrade both their networking and security systems to meet the demands of AI. He said Cisco is undergoing a "campus refresh," or replacement of outdated equipment at customer sites. On the macro front, tariffs were a 'slight headwind in Q4 and also for FY 25,' Patterson said. While he didn't specify the financial impact, he noted Cisco was able to offset much of the effect thanks to its global supply chain. Francisco Velasquez is a Reporter at Yahoo Finance. He can be reached on LinkedIn and X, or via email at
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cisco CFO talks Q4 earnings, AI strength, tariffs, & crypto
Cisco (CSCO) CFO Mark Patterson joins Opening Bid with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi after the company reported fiscal fourth quarter results that were just slightly better than Wall Street's estimates. Watch the video above to hear more from the executive about Cisco's artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities, Splunk's post-acquisition performance, tariff impacts, and more. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Opening Bid. Mark, good to see you here uh this morning. Let's try to pick apart uh a little bit of this stock sell off on the networking business. Sales up double digits. Good quarter for you guys. That's the bread and butter Cisco business. How confident are you that you will still be putting up double digit gains if we had this conversation three quarters from now? Yeah, thanks Brian. So, first off, just thanks for having me. Excited to be here. I think uh, you know, it was a it was a really solid quarter. So I want to thank the teams for for the execution during the quarter, uh particularly with my first quarter as CFO. It was a beat on both the top end and bottom line. We actually, revenue came in uh at the high end of our guide. So did uh gross margins and operating margin. And then EPS came in above uh the high end of our guide. So really pleased with uh the performance during the quarter. We saw, you know, very balanced uh growth across all of our uh geographies. We also saw growth in each one of our technologies as well. So, uh, you know, very very balanced quarter. As you mentioned, a lot of strength in networking. Uh revenue grew 12%. And that's frankly where I think a lot of the head or sorry, where a lot of the tail winds are uh today that we're seeing and we can certainly talk more about that. Security also, you know, showing uh, I think, uh real solid improvement there and and uh a lot to be excited about in terms of where we're taking that portfolio over time. All right. What's the biggest driver? I'll follow up on the um on the network business, Mark. What's the biggest driver of of that networking business? And and how do you see it uh moving from here? Yeah, so if you think about it, it I would I would say AI is really uh the biggest driver in terms of the overall umbrella. Uh when you look at the web scale space, certainly the the training uh build outs that that they're doing and the back end has been a big tailwind uh uh for us. Uh and we can certainly talk more about that. We we we took over 800 million in orders in the quarter, uh exceeded our original target that we had put out for the uh the web scalers and that AI back end build out of 2 billion. Well, we put out a target of 1 billion and actually came in over 2 billion, so more than double our original target. Then as you look at, you know, the the Neo Cloud build outs, uh the Sovereign build outs, those are still really yet to come for us. Uh the enterprise space is still very nascent, but we think will ultimately be a larger opportunity than than what we're seeing in the training build outs with with hyperscale. And then frankly what you're seeing a lot of right now is uh enterprises really preparing for AI and the applications that they will ultimately deploy. So whilst some have already started, you know, you're you're you're seeing them upgrade their network, uh upgrade their security posture, etcetera. And and so that's going to be a really good thing for Cisco as well. Mark, people that I have talked to that cover Cisco uh have told me that uh Splunk, uh that $28 billion acquisition that you that closed more than, I believe, more than a year ago, demand has started to slow down there after Cisco's acquisition. Can you comment on that? We really haven't seen that. You know, we we Splunk continues to perform at or above our expectations both on the top and bottom line. Uh so really encouraged by the performance there. We've done a lot to integrate the the teams. We've done a lot of integration in terms of the product development, but also bringing the sales teams together now. You know, one of the things that we saw uh as as a a real nice pick up in terms of why we wanted to do the acquisition was bringing this go-to-market uh together. And in the last two quarters, each of the last two quarters, we actually have uh over 300 new logos in both Q3 and Q4. So the teams are working together, the incentives are really aligned, and and I think that uh we've got a better, more complete offering for our customers. I'm asking all CFOs this one, Mark. I'll put this one to you. What do you what have you done in the past 90 days to mitigate the tariffs uh that the Trump administration has passed through? I mean, Cisco's a global company, of course. Yeah, we we we've done a lot as you'd expect actually. So we've got a world class, you know, global supply chain and I think this is one of the the places where our scale uh actually is an advantage uh for us. So uh the teams have been working hard. Uh we laid out uh the very specific assumptions, if you will, that underpin our guide as we move forward in terms of tariffs. It was really just a slight headwind in in Q4 and also for FY25 and, you know, we'll continue to work those mitigation efforts as we get more granularity and uh in terms of what to expect going forward. You baked in the tariff impact into your new fiscal year guidance. From an EPS standpoint, how much do tariffs hurt Cisco's earnings? You know, we haven't said the the specific amount, but again, I'd say it was it was really just a slight headwind in terms of the total uh that that obviously hits our cogs. But uh overall, very pleased with what what the teams have been able to do and and encouraged by, you know, our ability to mitigate those tariffs. If you go back to the the initial tariffs that that Trump uh had put in in place on China in his first uh term, uh we actually have mitigated over 80% of those those tariffs. And Mark, uh while you may be the new CFO of Cisco, you've been at the company, I believe, since September 2000. That's not too far removed from the uh the crash. You've seen a lot uh in the tech space and at Cisco. We're here trading at record high valuations. Tech stocks have gone through the roof. They're trading at record high valuations. Does it feel like that same bubblyish activity that we saw in late late 1999 and early 2000? Yeah, I think so, as you mentioned, I've been been with the company now 25 years in in a variety of roles and responsibilities, and uh it's been a long time since I've seen the kind of opportunities that we have uh ahead of us. Uh when you think about uh the AI infrastructure space as I sort of outlined between, you know, the the hyperscale space on down into the enterprise and all the the uh sort of preparing that the network or that the enterprises need to do in terms of upgrading their security and network posture, the way networking and security are really coming together as we move into a genetic AI, that's really the only only way you're going to be able to deal with the uh the escalation in terms of the threats that you're going to see from from AI. So I think that this combination of of AI infrastructure, security, the way we've upgraded our our hand in in the Splunk acquisition there and we're continuing to roll out new innovation there, uh and then this overall sort of uh campus refresh that we're talking about as well, there's a lot of, you know, older equipment that that uh is with our customers. We just we rolled out uh I would say, you know, probably the biggest innovation payload since I I can remember anyway while being at Cisco across uh all of our portfolio and so pretty excited about the opportunity ahead. We've got a lot to do certainly, but uh big opportunities that we have in front of us. It's it's also an interesting moment, uh, Mark, for the role of the CFO. Uh we're seeing a lot of companies, a lot of CFOs just start to diversify sizeable cash holdings into crypto assets. You know, and I see what GameStop has done and Microstrategy and they're fine, but Cisco is more, I mean it's a piece of Americana. I mean, it's an iconic iconic company. Have you had those discussions internally and can you envision putting your sizeable cash position, even a small part of it, in crypto? Yeah, I think we're pretty pretty conservative with, you know, with our cash, certainly in investments and in our commitment to return cash to our shareholders. It'll be something that we continue to look at uh moving forward, but I I don't see that uh having a big play going forward. So your priority is still uh more focused on using your cash to buy back stock. Is that correct? Well, I think the first, you know, priority of of the cash that we generate is really to to fund the, you know, the operations, the business and the innovation and and the markets that I talked about earlier and the kinds of opportunity that are ahead. Secondly, uh would certainly be the dividend that we've got. Uh third would really to be offset any any dilution relative to uh stock uh that we grant to to employees as well as opportunistically looking at any additional um money above over and above that or what we want to do to deliver uh value back to our shareholders. All right, we're going to leave it there for now. Cisco CFO Mark Patterson, good to see you. Good luck in the new role. We'll uh we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. 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