Cisco Beats 3Q Expectations

For the three months ended April 27, Cisco earned $729 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a $2.7 billion loss, or 37 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Sales were $4.82 billion, up 2 percent from $4.73 billion in the third quarter last year.

Excluding special items, the company earned $838 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with profits of $230 million, or 3 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2001. It was the third straight quarter-to-quarter increase in profits and revenues.

Analysts were expecting profits of 9 cents a share on revenue of $4.87 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call.

'We are very pleased with this quarter's performance,' said Cisco President and CEO John Chambers. 'The combination of our strong market position and solid execution by our team produced results that clearly indicate that Cisco is well-positioned when the economy rebounds. Last year was a classic downturn. We took the critical steps to position ourselves for the upturn, and we are beginning to see the very positive results.'

The results were released after the markets closed. Shares of Cisco surged nearly 10 percent to $14.36 in after-hours trading. They closed the regular session at $13.08, up 19 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.

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