Cisco Shares Rise As Company Tops Profit Forecasts

Shares of Cisco Systems' rose as much as 5% in after-hours trading Tuesday as the company reported that its fiscal second-quarter profit surged nearly 40%.

Cisco reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of 33 cents a share, excluding one-time charges, beating analysts' forecasts.

The computer networking company was expected to report earnings of 31 cents a share on sales of $8.28 billion for the quarter ended Jan. 27, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

The San Jose, Calif.-based technology bellwether, which makes the routers and switches that direct data traffic over computer networks, said revenue for the most recent quarter was $8.4 billion.

In the year-ago period, Cisco reported a profit of 26 cents a share on revenue of $6.63 billion.