Cisco Shares Gain After First-Quarter Beat (UPDATE 1)

Cisco story updated from 4:23 p.m. ET with executive comments from conference call

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Cisco (CSCO) beat Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday, although the Dow component's adjusted profit dropped slightly on a year-over-year basis amid sluggish corporate spending.

The tech bellwether posted non-GAAP earnings of $2.3 billion, or 43 cents per share, for the three months ended Oct. 29, a dip from its year-ago equivalent profit of $2.4 billion, or 42 cents per share.

Cisco CEO John Chambers .

Revenue rose 4.7% year-over-year to $11.3 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of 39 cents a share and revenue of $11.03 billion in the October-ended period.

Earlier this summer, Cisco announced it was cutting 16% of its workforce as part of a $1 billion cost reduction effort. The restructuring was a way to deal with a drop in tech spending, market share losses and sagging network equipment demand that had pummeled Cisco's stock.

The company said it will achieve this savings plan by the third quarter.

Cisco has also focused on its core networking gear business and scaled back its consumer business.

"In every major market transition we have historically emerged stronger," Cisco CEO John Chambers said during the company's earnings call. "We're well on our way to doing this again."

Cisco also reported upbeat guidance for the current quarter, forecasting adjusted profit of 42 to 44 cents per share and revenue of $11.13 billion to $11.23 billion.

Analysts are currently looking for second-quarter earnings of 42 cents per share and revenue of $11.14 billion.

The stock was last quoted at $18.34, up 4.2%, on after-hours volume of more than 7 million, according to Nasdaq.com.

--Written by Olivia Oran in New York.



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