Cisco’s Profit Climbs 12% on Strong Demand

Sales in its fiscal fourth quarter rise 11%. The company expects revenue in the current quarter to be 10% higher than a year earlier.

Cisco Systems Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 12% as the company benefited from strong demand for its traditional routers and switches as well as emerging technologies including Internet telephones.

The world’s largest maker of networking gear also said it expected first-quarter sales to increase 10% above the $6 billion reported in the same period of fiscal 2005. The forecast was slightly below Wall Street expectations.

For the three months ended July 30, Cisco earned $1.54 billion, or 24 cents a share, compared with $1.38 billion, or 20 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% to $6.58 billion.

Excluding special items, the company earned $1.6 billion, or 25 cents a share, compared with $1.5 billion, or 21 cents.

On that basis, the fourth-quarter earnings met analysts’ average estimate, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

But the company’s sales forecast for the current quarter sent its shares down to $18.81 in after-hours trading. They had risen 36 cents to $19.61 in regular trading, before the report.

Chief Executive John Chambers dismissed a report Sunday by a British newspaper that Cisco was interested in acquiring Finnish cellphone maker Nokia.

“It is extremely unlikely for us to ever do a large acquisition. My view is most all of them fail,” he said.