Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company sees sales growth of 4.5-6.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
The San Jose-based Cisco reported third-quarter revenue of $13.0 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $3.0 billion or $0.69 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.5 billion or $0.78 per share.
"Our strong performance in the quarter was across the business, reflecting our customers' confidence in our strategy, business model and market-leading portfolio," said CEO Chuck Robbins. "Technology is at the heart of our customers' strategies and we are building the technology to help them achieve their business objectives."
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments amounted to $34.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2019, compared with $40.4 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2019, and compared with $46.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2018.
In the third quarter of fiscal 2019, Cisco returned $7.5 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. The company also declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.35 per common share, or $1.5 billion, and repurchased approximately 116 million shares of common stock under its stock repurchase program at an average price of $52.14 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $6.0 billion.
Cisco says the remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under the program is $18 billion with no termination date.
Shares in CSCO jumped $3.06, or 5.8%, to $55.50
