Cisco earnings beat expectations

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Computer networking company Cisco Systems reported higher-than-expected earnings on a boost in quarterly sales, the company announced Tuesday.

Cisco reported net income of $1.9 billion or 31 cents per share. Excluding certain charges, the company earned $2.3 billion or 36 cents per share.

Analysts were expecting Cisco to report earnings of 35 cents a share for the quarter.

"They beat and that's good. When things are going well, as they are right now, they have enough flexibility that they can beat on a regular basis," J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Ehud Gelblum told Reuters. "Gross margin was 65 percent. The guidance is usually 64 to 65 percent. It's certainly on the good side."

Quarterly sales reached $9.4 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago.

For the full fiscal year ending July, sales reached $34.9 billion, up 23 percent from fiscal 2006 thanks to a boost in sales following its acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta last year.

That segment contributed $2.8 billion to net sales for the year, compared with $989 million in the prior year.

Overall, Cisco earned $7.3 billion, or $1.17 a share for the full fiscal year.

Cisco's (up $0.19 to $29.69, Charts, Fortune 500) shares jumped 5.8 percent in after-hours trading to $31.40, after closing at $29.69 on the Nasdaq. The stock has risen more than 70 percent from a year earlier.

"The carrier business is doing well, growing 25 to 30 percent. The only weakness we've seen is in the enterprise business. This is the key to driving top-line and bottom-line growth going forward," Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc, told Reuters.

Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers, in a conference call following fiscal fourth-quarter results, also forecast first-quarter revenue growth of about 16 percent from a year earlier, Reuters reported.

He also raised the company's long-term revenue growth forecast to an annual 12 percent to 17 percent from a previous range of 10 percent to 15 percent.

-- from staff and wire reports