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Cisco tops 2Q targets
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February 6, 2002: 4:27 p.m. ET
Company beats estimates, as expected, after giving advance guidance.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Network equipment maker Cisco Systems said Wednesday fiscal second quarter sales and profits tumbled from the year-ago period, but the company still beat Wall Street's expectations.
Cisco (CSCO: Research, Estimates) reported second-quarter income excluding certain charges of $664 million, or 9 cents per share, compared to earnings of $1.3 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
The company said net sales tumbled 28 percent from the same quarter a year ago to $4.8 billion.
Earlier in the day, Cisco announced it would release better-than-expected results for its fiscal second quarter, giving investors an early look at the report after a memo with some of the results was improperly given to a large number of employees.
On average analysts surveyed by First Call expected the company to earn 5 cents per share on revenue of $4.55 billion.
Looking ahead, the company only gave guidance on its current third quarter, which CEO John Chambers said was traditionally a seasonally challenging one for Cisco.
In a conference call Chambers said he sees third-quarter revenue flat to a percentage rise in the low single digits compared to the second quarter.
Analysts surveyed by First Call are looking for a third-quarter sequential increase in revenue of about 2.2 percent to $4.65 billion.
In after-hours trading, shares of Cisco sank $1.10 to $17.51, reversing earlier after-hours gains which came when the company's earnings were first released.
The company's actual net income for the second quarter was $660 million, or 9 cents per share, down from $874 million, or 12 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
It is also the second quarter in a row the company has shown a sequential increase in pro forma income.
Cisco said earIier it felt it was important to give new guidance after it "inadvertently" released some information to a large number of its employees late Tuesday.
CNNfn has learned that the information mistakenly released was part of an internal script about sales strategy that was to be read to sales team members Wednesday after the earnings were released. The script was being e-mailed to an executive and was inadvertently sent as a batch e-mail. 
Reuters contributed to this report
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