Cisco's fourth quarter better than expected

Cisco reported a better-than-expected fourth quarter as the company weathered a tricky fiscal year.

Cisco reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.9 billion, or 36 cents a share, on revenue of $11.7 billion, up 4 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 47 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting non-GAAP earnings of 45 cents a share on revenue of $11.6 billion.

For fiscal 2012, Cisco reported earnings of $8 billion, or $1.49 a share, on revenue of $46.1 billion, up 7 percent from a year ago.

In a statement, Cisco CEO John Chambers said the company is executing well and is poised to capitalize on cloud computing, mobility, and video traffic, among other trends.

Going into Cisco's earnings, analysts were expecting a strong fourth quarter on decent enterprise demand. A long-term issue for Cisco, however, is the trend toward network virtualization.

By the numbers:

• Cisco ended the quarter with $48.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.
• Product sales for the fourth quarter were $9.15 billion, and service revenue was $2.54 billion.
• Cisco spent $5.49 billion on research and development in fiscal 2012.
• Total inventory as of July 28 was $1.66 billion, up from $1.48 billion in the same period a year ago.
• Days sales outstanding in the fourth quarter was 34, down from 38 a year ago.
• Inventory turns were 11.7, roughly even with a year ago.

This story originally appeared on ZDNet.