(RTTNews) -  Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO: News ) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit fell 19% from last year, hurt by lower sales and higher provision for income taxes. However, the company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly sales. The company also said its board of directors has authorized up to $10 billion in additional share buybacks.

The world's largest computer networking gear maker reported GAAP net income for the first quarter of $1.8 billion or $0.30 per share, compared to $2.2 billion or $0.37 per share for the year-ago quarter and $1.1 billion or $0.19 per share for the previous sequential quarter.

Excluding stock options expenses and other items, non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was $2.1 billion or $0.36 per share, compared to $2.5 billion or $0.42 per share in the prior year quarter and $1.8 billion or $0.31 per share in the prior quarter.

On average, 31 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.31 per share for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 65.3% from 64.7% in the year-ago quarter and 63.9% in the previous quarter.

San Jose, California-based Cisco, which makes the routers and switches that direct computer and telecommunications traffic over corporate networks and the Internet, said net sales for the first quarter fell 12.7% to $9.02 billion from $10.33 billion in the same quarter last year. First quarter sales grew 5.6% sequentially. Thirty-two analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $8.74 billion for the first quarter.
Cisco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers said, "Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times."

Product sales for the first quarter fell 17% to $7.20 billion from $8.64 billion a year ago, while services sales increased 7% to $1.82 billion from $1.70 billion last year.

Days sales outstanding in accounts receivable at the end of the first quarter were 32 days, compared to 34 days at the end of the fourth quarter and 29 days at the end of the first quarter of last fiscal year.

GAAP inventory turns were 11.6 in the first quarter, compared to 11.7 in the fourth quarter and 11.9 in the first quarter of last year. Non-GAAP inventory turns were 11.3 in the first quarter, compared to 11.3 in the prior quarter and 11.6 in the prior year quarter.

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