Cisco 3Q profit beats views, shares rise

Cisco's profit was $1.77 billion, or 29 cents per share, during the three months ended April 26. That represents a drop of 5.4 percent from the $1.87 billion, or 30 cents per share, that Cisco earned during the year-ago period.

Stripping out one-time charges, Cisco earned 38 cents per share, which is 2 cents per share above the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales came in at $9.79 billion, a 10.4 percent jump over the year-ago period. Analysts were expecting sales of $9.75 billion.

Wall Street wasn't expecting fireworks from Cisco in the third quarter because the technology bellwether lowered its sales-growth target in February. Cisco blamed weakness in the U.S. economy, which was causing big customers to delay or scuttle big purchases.

"Considering the relatively mixed economic environment we're in, I think it was a really good quarter from a balance perspective and an execution perspective -we did what we said we were going to do," Jonathan Chadwick, Cisco's corporate controller, said in an interview.

On a conference call with analysts, Cisco's chief executive, John Chambers, said he expects companies in the U.S. to remain cautious about spending until at least the end of 2008.

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