The outfit said it now expects full-year revenue between $56.5 billion and $56.7 billion, nudging up from its previous guess of $56 billion to $56.5 billion. It  bumped up its adjusted earnings forecast to between $3.77 and $3.79 per share, from an earlier prediction of $3.68 to $3.74.

That is slightly better than what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street were snorting about. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had predicted $56.4 billion in sales and $3.72 a share in earnings.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ending in July, Cisco is predicting adjusted earnings of 96 to 98 cents per share on sales of $14.5 billion to $14.7 billion. Those numbers are a shade stronger than the 95 cents and $14.52 billion the analysts were hoping for, though hardly anything to stick on the fridge.

Shares in Cisco rose 3.4 per cent to $63.40 in after-hours trading. Over the past year, the stock is up a tidy 23 per cent.

This faint whiff of optimism comes as Cisco posted a fiscal third-quarter profit of $2.49 billion, or 62 cents per share, up from $1.89 billion, or 46 cents per share, the year before. Adjusted earnings were 96 cents per share, beating the 92 cents Wall Street had pencilled in.

Revenue climbed 11 per cent to $14.15 billion, again a bit ahead of the $14.05 billion expected. Product revenue jumped 15 per cent to $10.37 billion, while services revenue dragged itself up by a mere 2.6 per cent to $3.78 billion.

Chief executive Chuck Robbins said: "The momentum we are seeing with AI is fueled by the power of our secure networking portfolio, our trusted global partnerships, and the value we bring to our customers."

Cisco  decided it was time for a changing of the financial guard. It named Mark Patterson, currently the chief strategy officer, as the next chief financial officer, effective 27 July. He replaces Scott Herren, who announced he would be retiring. At least someone at Cisco is still getting out while the stock price is up.