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Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) reported fiscal third-quarter earnings after the market close Wednesday that beat on both the top and bottom lines, and did its earnings guidance. Revenue rose 3% from the year-earlier period, to $12 billion, just beating the consensus estimate of $11.97 billion, as polled by Thomson Reuters. For the quarter ended April 30, Cisco said earnings per share minus items rose 5.6% to 57 cents, edging the consensus of 55 cents. The No. 1 maker of switches and other networking gear projected Q4 EPS ex items of 59 cents to 61 cents, vs. 59 cents in the year-ago quarter and topping consensus of 58 cents. Cisco stock was up 5% in after-hours trading, after the earnings release. Cisco stock rose a fraction in Wednesday’s regular session, to 26.72, which is up 19% from the two-year low of 22.46 touched on Feb. 10. “We delivered a strong Q3, executing well despite the challenging environment,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said in the earnings release. Analysts had lowered expectations ahead of Cisco earnings due to the growing number of companies outsourcing computing workloads to cloud computing service providers such as Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and its Amazon Web Services business. The move to cloud computing has lowered demand for Cisco’s networking gear. The lowered expectations also reflected lower spending on information technology overall. Well aware of the trends, Cisco is diversifying beyond its core switch and router business into newer, higher-growth segments such as software, data centers, security, wireless and the Internet of Things market. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News