Cisco CEO Says Sales Stable, Offers No Details

Cisco Systems Inc.’s recent orders were in line with the same stable pattern the company experienced in previous months, Chief Executive John Chambers said Tuesday, without offering specific sales figures.

“Our booking linearity that we saw [earlier in the year] ... continued again in November and December,” Chambers said at a Salomon Smith Barney investment conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. He declined to update Cisco’s financial forecast for the quarter.

The largest maker of computer-networking equipment also expects to capture a “dramatic” additional share of the market from rivals in its fiscal second quarter ending Jan. 26, Chambers said.

Shares of Cisco, which makes gear that powers the Internet, fell 22 cents to $20.73 in after-hours trading, after closing up 42 cents at $20.95 on Nasdaq.

Chambers said the U.S. market still is struggling, but the company has seen some strength in Europe. Asia has had a mixed performance, with China feeling some of the “stress” from the U.S. economic downturn. Japan probably will see three to five years of “challenging times,” he said.

“I’d like to say I knew where the economy is going ... but there’s still limited visibility,” he said. “Customers are saying ‘We’re planning conservatively and acting accordingly.’”

In its fiscal second quarter, analysts expect Cisco to report operating profit of 5 cents a share on revenue of $4.54 billion. In the year-ago period, Cisco reported earnings of 18 cents on record sales of $6.75 billion.