Cisco Tops Estimates

As its recent buying binge–three acquisitions in October, alone–suggests, Cisco’s business is in decent shape these days. Posting earnings after market close Wednesday, Cisco reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, or 30 cents a share, compared with a profit of $2.2 billion, or 37 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Sales were $9.02 billion, down from $10.331 billion the company managed last year.

Excluding one-time items, Cisco (CSCO) said it earned 36 cents a share, down from 42 cents a share in the same period last year. Still, that was better than the consensus estimate. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the company to deliver a profit of 31 cents a share on sales of $8.745 billion.

“Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times,” CEO John Chambers said in a statement.

“We view the improving economic outlook, combined with solid execution on our growth strategy, as creating unparalleled opportunity to drive more value into the core of the network,” Chambers continued. “Simply said, we believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualization and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected.”

At $24.20, shares in the company are trading up nearly four percent on the news.