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Cisco Systems (CSCO +5%) is trading nicely higher after reporting EPS upside for Q3 (Apr). Revenues grew 11.4% yr/yr to $14.15 bln, its first double-digit yr/yr growth in the past seven quarters. It also provided upbeat guidance for Q4 (Jul). Notably, Cisco received AI infrastructure orders from webscale customers in excess of $600 mln in Q3, bringing its year-to-date total to well over $1 bln, surpassing its goal a full quarter early.

• Cisco reported revenue, margins and EPS all above the high-end of prior guidance ranges. It also generated solid growth in ARR, RPO and subscription revenue. Enterprise product orders were up 22% yr/yr, driven by double-digit growth in the Americas and APJC. Public sector orders were up 8% with growth in all geographies. Cisco noted that its US federal orders grew double-digits in Q3 after a challenging first half.
• The company said that product orders from service provider and cloud customers continue to be strong, up 32% yr/yr, driven by triple-digit growth in webscale. Networking product orders grew double-digits, driven by webscale infrastructure, enterprise routing, switching and our industrial IoT products.
• Cisco noted that, as infrastructure and manufacturing begins to onshore to the US, Cisco is well-positioned to help connect and protect these capital-intensive investments at scale. Its data center switching orders were up double-digits year-to-date. AI infrastructure orders from webscale customers were exceptionally strong in Q3.
• Turning to tariffs, Cisco said it has not seen any meaningful change in customer purchase decisions. It has not seen any customers really fundamentally slowing down. Cisco believes the AI transition is just so important that they are going to continue to spend until they just absolutely have to stop. As of right now, they're still comfortable. Also, Cisco did not see any signs of broad-based pull-forward sales or any push-outs for that matter.

Overall, this was a very good quarter for Cisco. It posted impressive numbers and guidance, but we think the positive comments on the call were just as important. Notably, Cisco is not seeing customers slow down purchases nor was there notable pull-forward sales to boost Q3 results. Given the macro/tariff uncertainty, we think these comments were about as positive as investors could expect.