Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins speaks at the Semaphore World Economy Summit in Washington on April 15, 2026.
Alex Wong | getty images
cisco Shares rose 14% in extended trading Wednesday after the networking company released results and guidance that topped Wall Street estimates.
The company said it was cutting its workforce by less than 4,000 jobs this quarter, which is less than 5% of its total workforce.
Here’s how the company performed compared to the LSEG consensus:
- earnings per share: $1.06 adjusted vs. $1.04 expected
- Income: $15.84 billion vs. $15.56 billion expected
Cisco said in a statement that revenue rose 12% in the quarter ended April 25, from $14.15 billion a year earlier. Net income rose to $3.37 billion, or 85 cents a share, from $2.49 billion, or 62 cents a share, a year earlier.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, Cisco is seeking $1.16 to $1.18 in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of $16.7 billion to $16.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting $15.82 in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of $1.07 billion.
Cisco said it has received $5.3 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure and hyperscaler orders so far this year, and its expected orders for the fiscal year increased from $5 billion to $9 billion. The company said it expects revenue of $4 billion in that market for the fiscal year, up from a prior estimate of $3 billion.
While Cisco has trailed many of its data center competitors in the AI race, Wall Street has been bullish on the company’s story recently, driving the stock to a record late last year, eventually surpassing its dot-com high. Shares have continued to rise 33% this year, topping the Nasdaq’s 14% gain.
CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog post The latest round of job cuts will begin May 14, it said Wednesday. Cisco is the latest company to announce headcount cuts related to AI.
“The companies that will win in the AI age will be those with the focus, urgency and discipline to proactively shift investments to areas where demand and long-term value creation is strongest,” Robbins said. “I’m confident Cisco will be one of those winners. That means making tough decisions – about where we invest, how we’re organized, and how our cost structure reflects the opportunity before us.”
Cisco said in a filing that the severance and other costs will result in a pre-tax charge of $1 billion, and the company will pay about $450 million of that in the fiscal fourth quarter.
During the third quarter, Cisco announced switches and routers Which uses its next generation processor. company also introduced a leaderboard For ranking generic AI models based on their robustness against cybersecurity attacks.
Cisco’s networking revenue rose 25% to $8.82 billion, exceeding the consensus of $8.47 billion among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Security revenue was flat at about $2 billion, compared to StreetAccount’s consensus of $1.99 billion.
Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 4:30 pm ET.
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