Cisco revenue and earnings beat Wall Street estimates

A sign marking a Cisco office is pictured in San Diego, California November 12, 2012.

(Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc reported quarterly revenue and earnings on Wednesday that beat Wall Street's average estimates.

Revenue rose 5 percent for Cisco's fiscal second quarter that ended January 26 to $12.1 billion versus a year ago. Analysts, on average, were expecting $12.06 billion, as compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Income, excluding items, rose 6.2 percent to $2.7 billion, or 51 cents per share, 3 cents above analysts' average estimate of 48 cents a share.

Analysts had been expecting Cisco to do better than forecast and Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee, said that "it's pretty much going to boil down to guidance now".

"They did say they got a benefit from taxes. When you (take) that out its 50 cents. That still beat by 2 cents," he said referring to Cisco's earnings per share.

Cisco's shares lost 1.2 percent in after-hours trading to $20.89.

(Reporting By Nicola Leske; Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)