Cisco Systems Q3 earnings beat estimates despite falling revenues

Networking group Cisco Systems posted some strong third-quarter figures on Thursday, coming in ahead of Wall Street estimates despite witnessing a drop in revenues.

Cisco posted sales of $12bn for the third quarter of its trading year, down 8% year-on-year, but managed to eke out a profit of $0.79 per share - ahead of the $0.71 expected on the Street.

The Californian firm's largest business unit, Infrastructure Platforms, pulled in $6.43bn in revenues, down 15% from a year ago and below estimates, while its Applications wing recorded revenues of $1.36bn - down 5% year-on-year and shy of analysts' estimates of $1.43bn

Services revenues were 5% at $3.38bn and Security revenue rose 6% to $776m.

Chief financial officer Kelly Kramer said: "We executed well in Q3 in a very challenging environment, delivering strong margins and non-GAAP EPS growth.

"The resiliency that we have been building into our business model is paying off, with software subscriptions now at 74% of our software revenue, up 9 points year over year. We are focused on driving long-term profitable growth while delivering shareholder value."

As of 1345 BST, Cisco shares were up 0.72% in pre-market trading at $42.25 each.