What happened
Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO +0.46%) surged as much as 7.2% higher on Thursday morning, driven by a solid fourth-quarter earnings report. The stock had retreated to a 5.7% gain by 2:40 p.m. ET, but that move still added more than $11 billion to Cisco's massive market cap.
So what
Cisco's top-line sales landed at $13.1 billion in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the year-ago report. Adjusted earnings fell by 1%, stopping at $0.83 per share. Your average analyst was looking for earnings near $0.82 per share on revenue in the neighborhood of $12.7 billion, so the reported results were a mixed bag. Management's guidance targets for the next fiscal year were also broadly aligned with current Wall Street expectations.
However, the company also provided a positive view of its order book. Demand for Cisco's data center and telecom-grade networking equipment remains high, even though shipments are limited by component shortages. Customers are sticking with their not-yet-delivered purchases, and canceled orders are actually running below their pre-pandemic baseline level. As a result, Cisco's order backlog stands at what it calls "record highs" and revenue should surge when the semiconductor suppliers get their ducks in a row again.
NASDAQ: CSCO
Key Data Points
Now what
It's funny that a technology titan's sales and bottom-line profits depend on disrupted shipments of microchips made in China, but that's the global economy we live in.
Those clogged Chinese ports have already started to open up, and Cisco is redesigning some of its products to replace hard-to-find chips with more readily available alternatives. Cisco's muted growth should recover over time, as the improving infrastructure allows the company to chip away at that mountainous order backlog. A signed invoice is always better than a bucketful of pent-up demand, but backlogs are also good as long as customers don't walk away from their signed commitments.
In the meantime, Cisco shares look affordable at 14.7 times earnings and 4.1 times sales, both below the stock's average ratios over the past three years. Cisco stock isn't a screaming buy today, but the improving shipping pipeline and historically low valuation add up to a low-risk stock with a generous dividend yield of 3%. If that's what you need today, you should consider picking up a few Cisco shares on the cheap.
