The American company – Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported a quarterly revenue and profit that exceeded expectations, mainly due to a confident demand for security products.
The shares of the company, which rose 27% over the past 12 months and which reached the peak of more than nine years, fell 1.3% to $ 32.40 after closing.
Revenues in the area of security, including the protection of business firewalls and hack-detection systems, rose 14% to $ 528 million. On average, analysts had expected revenue of $ 519.1 million, according to market research company FactSet Street Account.
Profit in the traditional business of switches, the largest division, fell 5% to $ 3.31 billion in the second quarter against an average forecast of $ 3.38 billion, according to the same FactSet Street Account.
To compensate for the sluggish demand in the traditional line of switches and routers, Cisco focused on areas such as security, the Internet of Things and cloud computing.
With the exception of one-time items, the company earned 57 cents per share, topping analysts' average expectations by one cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Cisco announced that it expects to receive an adjusted profit of 57-59 cents per share in the current quarter. On average, analysts had expected earnings at 58 cents.
In the second quarter which ended January 28, the company's net income fell $ 2.35 billion, or 47 cents per share, from $ 3.15 billion, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue fell 2.9%, falling for the fifth quarter in a row, to $ 11.58 billion.
As for the US stock market as a whole, it closed Thursday trading lower amid the negative dynamics on the part of the oil and gas sector, consumer services and healthcare. At the close on the New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones fell 0.02%, S & P 500 fell 0.17%, and NASDAQ Composite fell 0.19%.