Cisco Grows Where Others Can't

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- With another quarter in the books for networking giant Cisco (CSCO), it seems not a whole lot has changed, which for the company is a good thing. What this means is that for now seven consecutive quarters, Cisco has beaten its earnings estimates -- a pretty remarkable accomplishment considering how the entire sector has been ravaged by poor economic spending.

While this has caused rivals such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), F5 (FFIV) and Juniper (JNPR) to consistently underperform, Cisco continues to show growth where the competition have not.

Nonetheless, when discussing these accomplishments Wall Street remains broadly unimpressed. However this time, aside from exceeding expectations, Cisco also offered a much rosier outlook than many had anticipated. In terms of the stock, I think value investors would be wise to appreciate just how undervalued the shares are at current levels.

A Strong Start to Fiscal 2013

For the period ending in October, the network giant reported net income of $2.6 billion, or 48 cents a share on revenue of $11.9 billion. Not only was this enough to beat analysts' estimates of 46 cents per share, but the results also represented 11% profit growth.

Likewise, revenue also grew by 6% and exceeded street expectations of $11.77 billion.

However, challenges still remain in terms of the company's core routing and switching business, which continues to experience weak demand. On the other hand, the company enjoyed a strong showing in its services business with revenue growing year-over-year by 12%.

Cisco attributed the better-than-expected performance to some of its biggest U.S. customers, from which the company saw a 9% increase in orders -- helping offset continued weakness in Europe.

In terms of guidance, Cisco expects second-quarter earnings to arrive between 47 cents to 48 cents per share. The company also expects revenue to grow as high as 5.5% if it reaches the high end of its range of $12.1 billion.

The company has chosen to guide conservatively as has been the pattern for most of this year due to weak enterprise spending. Likewise, investors should expect the company to beat on these projections as it has done now for almost two years.

Where's the Love?

For as consistent as Cisco has been in its string of market-beating performances, the company can't seem to get any respect. It seems investors continue to doubt the company's ability to grow despite increasing profits in the recent quarter by double-digits. For this, Cisco's management deserves more credit than it has received of late. Despite persistent disrespect, the company remained focus on its execution while ignoring all of the noise.

1 2 Next › Last »