By Abhirup Roy
(Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc (O:CSCO) reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher demand for its routers and security products, and added $15 billion to its share buyback program.
The company's shares rose 5.1 percent in after-market trading on Wednesday.
The results were a bright sign for investors after several tech stocks with lofty valuations plunged in the past few days due to disappointing sales outlooks from LinkedIn Corp (N:LNKD) and Tableau Software.
Cisco is shifting to high-end switches and routers and investing in new products such as data analytics software and cloud-based tools for data centers.
Revenue in the company's routers business rose 5 percent to $1.85 billion in the second quarter ended Jan. 23, Cisco said.
Revenue in the switches business, the company's biggest, fell 4 percent to $3.48 billion.
Its security business, which offers firewall protection as well as intrusion detection and prevention systems, recorded an 11 percent rise in revenue to $462 million.
Cisco boosted its current share buyback plan of $97 billion, of which $16.9 billion was remaining, by $15 billion.
The company forecast third-quarter adjusted profit of 54-56 cents per share and revenue growth of 1-4 percent, excluding revenue from its customer premises equipment business, which it has sold.
Analysts on average expect a third-quarter profit of 55 cents per share and revenue of $12.02 billion.
Net income rose to $3.1 billion, or 62 cents per share, from $2.40 billion, or 46 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 57 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 54 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 2 percent to $11.8 billion, excluding revenue from the customer premises equipment portion of the service provider video connected devices business that was divested.