Cisco earns down but says 'tipping point' passed

By JORDAN ROBERTSON AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers said Wednesday that the company's latest quarterly numbers reinforce his observation that recession-dampened orders are improving after passing a "tipping point" this summer.

Net income for the world's No. 1 maker of computer-networking gear dropped 19 percent and sales fell 13 percent, but still topped Wall Street's forecasts.

The stock climbed 82 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $24.11 in extended trading Wednesday after the results were reported. In regular trading earlier, it gained 31 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $23.22.

Cisco said net income was down 19 percent from the year-ago period to $1.8 billion, or 30 cents per share.

Excluding one-time charges, Cisco earned 36 cents per share, ahead of analysts' expectation for 31 cents per share in net income, on that same basis.

Revenue dropped 13 percent to $9 billion. Analysts expected $8.7 billion for the fiscal first quarter that ended Oct. 24, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

"Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times," Chambers said in a statement.

Cisco's fiscal fourth quarter ended July 25.

Cisco also announced that its board has approved $10 billion more for stock buybacks, lifting the total amount available under that and previous plans to $13.1 billion.