Cisco Systems Beats Earnings Targets, Misses on Revenues; Shares Drop 4%

After reporting first-quarter results, Cisco Systems is trading down 4% in after-hours action. The drop more than wiped out the 2% gains Cisco's stock accumulated over the past two days.

The networking-equipment giant reported first-quarter sales of $12.1 billion, just 1.8% above the year-ago period's $11.9 billion revenues. Three months ago, Cisco's management guided to roughly 4% higher sales. Analysts also toed the 4% line.

Despite the revenue miss, which wasn't explained in the earnings release, Cisco delivered $0.53 of non-GAAP earnings per share to beat both Wall Street targets and its own guidance.

CEO John Chambers focused on the record-level non-GAAP profits, although he did concede that revenues came in below internal targets. Chambers also underlined Cisco's strategic goal of growing out beyond the core networking market. "We remain confident in our long-term goal to be the No. 1 IT company in the world and help our customers solve their biggest business problems," Chambers said.

Cisco's board of directors also announced a $15 billion refill of the share repurchase program, which had only $1.1 billion remaining under the existing authorization. The company bought back $2 billion of its own shares during this quarter alone.

The article Cisco Systems Beats Earnings Targets, Misses on Revenues; Shares Drop 4% originally appeared on Fool.com.

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