Cisco beats estimates on strong demand for security products

(Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, driven partly by strong demand for its security products.

The company's shares rose 5.16 percent in after-market trading on Wednesday.

Cisco also gave an upbeat forecast for the current quarter - it expects an adjusted profit of 59-61 cents per share and revenue to range from flat to up 3 percent.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 58 cents and revenue of $12.42 billion for the fourth quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue in Cisco's security business, which offers firewall protection as well as intrusion detection and prevention systems, rose 17 percent due to strong sales of its SourceFire products.

Cisco has been beefing up its wireless security businesses to offset the impact of sluggish spending by telecom carriers on its main business of making network switches and routers.

Revenue in Cisco's data center business rose 1 percent in the third quarter.

Revenue in the company's traditional routers business fell 5 percent, while switching unit revenue was down 3 percent.

Cisco is making a transition to high-end switches and routers and investing in new products such as data analytics software and cloud-based tools for data centers.

The company's net profit fell to $2.35 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the third quarter ended April 30, from $2.44 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 57 cents per share.

Analysts on an average had expected a profit of 55 cents per share and revenue of $11.97 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell to $12.00 billion from $12.14 billion.

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)