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Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has just reported its first quarter earnings results. The communications and networking equipment giant has reported earnings of $0.48 EPS on $11.88 billion in sales. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.46 EPS and it saw a sales gain of 6% to $11.79 billion in revenue.

Chairman and CEO John Chambers has said that the company’s cash and cash equivalents was about $45 billion at the end of the quarter. Chambers also said that The Internet of Everything is offering Cisco will create unprecedented possibilities. Chambers just said in his comments that it had 62.7% in its gross margin.

Cisco repurchased some 15 million shares of common stock at an average price of $16.44 per share for 253 million, which means that it has retired 3.8 billion shares at an average price of $20.34 per share for a total of $76.4 billion since the inception of the stock repurchase program. As of now, the remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases is approximately $5.6 billion with no termination date.

Cisco guidance usually does not come until the conference call. With the coming fiscal cliff impacting government spending by so much, we expect Cisco to offer a wider range for its guidance ahead and we also expect that many caveats will be included along the lines of how unpredictable the spending cuts may be on equipment. Thomson Reuters has estimates for the second quarter ending in January 2013 as $0.48 EPS and $12.07 billion in revenue.

Cisco shares closed flat at $16.85 today against a 52-week range of $14.96 to $21.30. As of about 4:12 p.m. EST the stock was up almost 3% or $0.50 in the after-hours to $17.38.

Until we get guidance, we would consider this unfinished business.

JON C. OGG