By Sinead Carew
The results were in line with Wall Street expectations, and Cisco shares rose 1.2 percent as investors waited for company executives to give their outlook on a conference call.
Cisco, which makes routers, or switches that direct traffic on data networks, said its profit for the second quarter ended January 25, was $2.1 billion, or 33 cents per share, compared with $1.9 billion, or 31 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Sales rose 16.5 percent to $9.8 billion, in line with expectations.
"January is usually the seasonally softest quarter for them. All in all, I'm encouraged by this, and I think our long-term thesis for Cisco as a global-growth story is well under way," he said.
Cisco has been moving into new markets such as video conference and high-end video conference and also owns television set top box maker Scientific Atlanta, areas that Chief Executive John Chambers said were paying off.
He also said in a statement that the just-reported quarter was marked by strong revenue and order growth, paced by a broad base of geographic regions, products, services and customer markets.
Cisco shares closed down 18 cents at $23.08 on Nasdaq on Wednesday. In after-hours trade, the stock rose to $23.84.
