Cisco reported revenues of USD 9.0 billion for its fiscal first quarter to 24 October, down 12.7 percent from a year earlier. Net profit fell to USD 1.8 billion or USD 0.30 per share, from USD 2.2 billion or USD 0.37 per share a year ago. After cash flow of USD 1.5 billion in the quarter, the company finished the period with USD 35.4 billion in cash. Despite the year-on-year drop in results, Cisco said it saw continued sequential improvement from fiscal Q4 and "solid indications" of economic recovery in several parts of the world. In particular the US showed signs of life, with orders there stable versus a year earlier, Cisco said. Along with the improving economic outlook, the company was upbeat on its strategy, saying the networking trends of collaboration, virtualization and video are evolving even faster than expected. Across its product categories, router sales were down 17 percent from a year earlier to USD 1.6 billion and switches fell 21 percent to USD 2.9 billion, while services revenues were up 7 percent to USD 1.8 billion. From a geographic persepctive, US and Canada sales fell 10 percent to USD 5.0 billion, Europe declined 15 percent to USD 1.8 billion, Asia Pacific dropped 6 percent to USD 1.0 billion, Japan grew 2 percent to USD 0.4 billion and emerging markets were down 30 percent to USD 0.9 billion. Cisco said it had a product book-to-bill ratio of over 1 in the quarter, with orders showing single-digit growth in Japan, but still down year-on-year in the rest of Asia, emerging markets and Europe.
