Cisco's new CEO Chuck Robbins made a few new fans on Wednesday

Advertisement

Advertisement
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins

CNBC Mad Money

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins

Cisco's new CEO on Wednesday completed his first quarterly earnings report, one of the things that former CEO John Chambers was famous for.

Chambers always used Cisco's earnings to offer insights into the global economy.

Robbins didn't do that. Although he did report a good quarter and year (a beat), with "record revenues and record non-GAAP EPS for both Q4 and fiscal year 2015," he said on the quarterly conference call.

Revenues for the quarter were $12.8 billion, non-GaaP EPS was $0.59; revenue for the year was $49.2 billion and non-GaaP EPS was $2.21. Investors were happy. the stock is up about 4% on Thursday.

Cisco under Robbins also offered a lot of upbeat guidance for the next quarter, putting it all in the press release, and promised to be "transparent."

Advertisement

But Robbins also didn't take a ton of questions from analysts on his quarterly call, which at least one of them, Wall Street analyst Jeffrey Kvaal from Nomura, noticed: 

Cisco improved its disclosure process in Mr. Robbins's first quarter as CEO with more data in the release, including guidance. Conversely, the tight 40 min call, few questions, and lack of macro commentary removed some of the richness from the results.

(Nomura is neutral on the stock, but upped target price to $33)

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Tal Liani was more gung-ho about the new CEO (BofA rates Cisco a buy):

Cisco is "starting off on the right foot with Chuck Robbins  ...  We believe new management led by Chuck Robbins is focusing on the right areas, divesting businesses in the declining SP video market, and making acquisitions in security."

Advertisement

But RBC Capital Markets' Mark Sue (known as an extremely insightful Cisco analyst) didn't say anything specifically about Robbins at all (rating: "outperform"). Instead, Sue characterized Robbins first few weeks on the job like this:

"There's a new sense of urgency at Cisco. The bookings are better and deferred revenue growth is stronger as well. In an environment where large-cap tech peers are showing declining revenues, Cisco is increasing its revenue outlook."

Robbins did gain one outspoken fan on Wednesday,  Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff, who saw Robbins on his first appearance on Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" and tweeted about it.

 

 Here's Robbins with Cramer on Mad Money. 

Advertisement

NOW WATCH: People were baffled by 50 sharks circling in shallow waters off the English coast