Cisco growth caps upbeat channel performance

Networking leviathan is third big-name industry player to post impressive results this week

Party time: Insight, Avnet and Cisco have all grown sales by upwards of 20 per cent in results posted this week

Double digit top- and bottom-line growth in Q4 helped industry bellwether Cisco cap a week of encouraging financial results for the channel.

A week ago, reseller Insight Enterprises boosted sales by 23 per cent annually and doubled profits during an impressive second quarter. Yesterday, distribution monolith Avnet closed its fiscal year in outstanding form, growing Q4 revenue by almost 40 per cent year on year, and putting more than $140m (£90m) on its bottom line.

Now the vendor landscape has posted its own set of positive figures, with networking giant Cisco growing Q4 sales by 27 per cent to $10.8bn. In the three months to 31 July, the vendor also grew net income 79 per cent to $1.9bn.

Across the whole year, Cisco posted revenues of $40bn, an 11 per cent rise on last year. Full-year net profit rose 26.6 per cent to $7.8bn. But, despite the robust numbers, chief executive John Chambers claimed the economic outlook is still tinged with uncertainty.

"Whether the global economy continues to show mixed signals or not, the strength of our financial model and profit generation serves us well," he said. "As we to continue to successfully grow our business and share of IT investments, our focus is squarely on helping our customers accelerate productivity and growth.

"We are very confident in our strategy and will continue to aggressively move into new areas where the network is becoming the platform, and where our customers want us to invest and innovate."