Cisco beats the consensus, and increases its share buybacks

(Reuters) – Cisco has released Wednesday quarterly results better than expected, with the first increase in more than two years of its turnover.

The first global automotive supplier networks, which has tried for years to transform itself into a group that is more oriented toward software and cloud computing, has also raised $ 25 billion (20 billion euros), the amount of its share buyback programme.

The title has gained 5.3% 44,34 dollars in trade after the closing of Wall Street.

The turnover of the activities in the platforms infrastructure, which includes switches, routers, and data centers, increased 2% to $ 6.7 billion while analysts were expecting 6.6 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales from the security segment, which offers protection by firewalls and detection software intrusion, jumped 6% to $ 558 million, which is below the average forecast of analysts, which was 589,5 million.

The total turnover has increased from 2.7% to 11.9 billion during the three months to 27th January, the second quarter of fiscal offset from the group.

Cisco has released a net loss of $ 8.8 billion, or $ 1.78 per share, compared with a profit of $ 2.3 billion (47 cents per share) a year earlier.

This loss is due to a charge of $ 11.1 billion related to the recent tax reform in the United States.

Without exceptional items, the group posted a profit of 63 cents per share.

Analysts were expecting on average a profit of 59 cents per share on revenue of $ 11.8 billion.

Cisco expects the current quarter to adjusted earnings of between 64 and 66 cents per share, compared with a forecast of the analysts of 63 cents.

(Munsif Vengattil to BangaloreBertrand Boucey for the French service)