Cisco Systems Q2 Results Beat Street - Update

(RTTNews) - Silicon Valley giant Cisco Systems Inc., (CSCO) Wednesday reported a profit and revenues for the second quarter that trumped Wall Street analysts estimates. However, the third-quarter earnings outlook provided by the company were below current expectations.

The San Jose, California-based networking-equipment maker reported second-quarter profit of $2.82 billion or $0.63 per share, compared to last year's loss of $8.78 billion or $1.78 per share.

Last year's results were impacted by one-time charges of $11.1 billion related to the U.S. tax reforms.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.73 per share, up from $0.63 per share last year. On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.72 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter grew 7 percent to $12.45 from $11.89 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $12.41 billion for the quarter.

"We are very pleased with our strong performance in the quarter," said CEO Chuck Robbins. "Our teams are executing incredibly well, aggressively transitioning to a software model and accelerating our pace of innovation. We are redefining and connecting every domain of the networking infrastructure to deliver the agility, operational efficiency and security our customers require to embrace multicloud, edge computing and digital transformation."

Looking forward to the third quarter, Cisco expects adjusted earnings of $0.63 to $0.68 per share with revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.76 per share, with revenue growth of 3.00 percent.

Cisco declared a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share, a 2-cent increase or up 6% over the previous quarter's dividend, to be paid on April 24, 2019 to all shareholders of record as of the close on April 5, 2019.

Cisco also approved a $15 billion increase to the authorization of the stock repurchase program.

CSCO closed Wednesday's trading at $47.50, down $0.39 or 0.81%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $1.09 or 2.29% in the after-hours trade.