Cisco Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of CiscoSystems (NAS: CSCO) popped 18% in intraday trading today after reporting better-than-expected earnings and giving investors reason to believe its turnaround plan will work.

So what: Non-GAAP EPS of $0.40 fell 7% year-over-year but beat the $0.38 consensus estimate. GAAP EPS of $0.22 fell 33% year over year, hurt by $768 million of restructuring and other charges. Revenue increased 3% year over year, helped by services revenue growth of 12%.

Now what: Networking rivals (NAS: JNPR) , (NAS: RVBD) , and (NAS: BRCD) plunged after investors were disappointed with their recent earnings announcements, so expectations were low heading into Cisco's announcement. What's more, Cisco has a head start on its competitors in dealing with a tougher environment because the company began revamping last year after its results turned disappointing. To that end, CEO John Chambers stated yesterday that, "We've made significant progress on our comprehensive action plan to position ourselves for our next stage of growth and profitability...[now] you will see a very focused, agile, lean and aggressive company..."

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Cindy Johnson does not own shares of any company named above. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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