Cisco Systems reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $17.3 billion, an 18% increase from the year-earlier period, beating Wall Street's consensus estimate of $16.83 billion, the networking giant announced Wednesday after the market closed. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $1.22, topping analyst forecasts of $1.17, while GAAP net income surged 51% year-over-year to $3.9 billion, or 97 cents per share.
For the full fiscal year 2026, Cisco posted record revenue of $63.3 billion, up 12% from fiscal 2025, with GAAP net income climbing 30% to $13.3 billion. Chief Executive Officer Chuck Robbins described the results as evidence of a multiyear networking "super cycle" tied to enterprise and hyperscaler AI deployment. Total product orders rose 35% year-over-year in the quarter, while networking product orders grew 40%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
AI infrastructure demand from hyperscale cloud customers was a standout theme. That cohort placed $4 billion in orders during the fourth quarter alone, bringing the fiscal 2026 total to $9.3 billion. Cisco said it expects AI infrastructure revenue from hyperscalers to reach approximately $7.5 billion in fiscal 2027, up from roughly $4 billion delivered in fiscal 2026, as AI workloads increasingly get distributed across multiple data centers due to power and physical space constraints.
Looking ahead, Cisco guided for first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $18.0 billion to $18.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $1.32 to $1.34, both well above the roughly $16.66 billion and $1.16 consensus estimates on Wall Street. For the full 2027 fiscal year, the company projected revenue between $72.2 billion and $73.4 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $5.05 to $5.11.
Despite the across-the-board beat and upbeat guidance, Cisco shares declined in after-hours trading. Analysts pointed to already-elevated expectations heading into the print, with the stock having rallied sharply in recent months on AI-driven networking optimism. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of 42 cents per share, payable October 21, and said it returned $3.2 billion to shareholders during the quarter through buybacks and dividends. Cash flow from operations rose 27% year-over-year to $5.4 billion, and Cisco ended the period with $15.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.
The results add to a broader narrative this earnings season of networking and infrastructure names benefiting from accelerating AI capital spending, a theme that has also lifted shares of peers building out data center and enterprise hardware capacity.