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Cisco sneaks just above Q1 earnings targets; CFO stepping down

UPDATED: Kelly A. Kramer, currently senior vice president of business technology and operations finance at Cisco, will succeed Frank Calderoni. Cisco's Q2 guidance also looks soft.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Cisco published its fiscal first quarter earnings report after the bell on Wednesday.

The networking giant reported a net income of $1.8 billion, or 35 cents per share (statement).

Non-GAAP earnings were 54 cents per share on a revenue of $12.2 billion, up one percent year-over-year.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 53 cents per share with revenue of $12.16 billion.

Even more quietly tucked away in the Q1 report is a leadership shuffle.

Frank Calderoni is stepping down as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Cisco, effective January 1, 2015.

Cisco already has a replacement waiting in the wings. Kelly A. Kramer, currently senior vice president of business technology and operations finance at Cisco, will succeed Calderoni.

CEO John Chambers reflected briefly on the quarterly results and long-term product strategy in prepared remarks:

We are pleased with our results and are very comfortable in our strategy to deliver innovative solutions which enable the next generation of IT and the Internet of Everything. This was our strongest Q1 ever in terms of revenue, non-GAAP operating income, and non-GAAP EPS. We continue to make progress towards becoming the #1 IT company in the world. We are still in a tough environment, but seeing encouraging trends as cities, businesses, governments and schools are becoming more digitized. Our solutions continue to drive positive outcomes and enable productivity through the combination of collaboration, mobility, security and efficiency across our customers' businesses.

For the current quarter, Wall Street is again expecting earnings of 53 cents per share and $12.09 billion in revenue.

Cisco is expected to follow up with second fiscal quarter guidance during the shareholders conference call at 1:30PM PT/4:30PM ET.

UPDATED: As more companies and cities become "digitized," Chambers stressed during the call the necessity to develop a business model focused on delivering architectures and data centers rather than just networking "boxes."

With that in mind, Chambers said Cisco expects Q2 revenue to climb by approximately four to seven percent with a softer non-GAAP earnings forecast calling for 50 to 52 cents per share, translating to growth of six to 11 percent.

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