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Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced this morning that an executive "prematurely and inadvertently" sent an email with information about the company's yet-to-be announced second-quarter 2002 earnings results, which are to be announced tonight after the market closes.
Cisco shares were trading up $0.33 (1.78%) to $18.83 in late morning trading on Wednesday.
Because the email memo was widely distributed inside the company, Cisco felt it was necessary to disclose the flub. The company is trying to make sure it doesn't give the appearance of violating Regulation Fair Disclosure, the SEC rule that says that all publicly traded companies have to disclose material, market-moving information to all investors at the same time (see
Cisco Elucidates Prematurely).
Cisco says the memo characterized the company's earnings in "positive terms" but did not "include specific information about revenues or earnings for the quarter."
The memo said Cisco's booked orders for products were $3.9 billion versus an internal goal of $3.75 billion for the quarter. In a statement, Cisco CFO Larry Carter said that Cisco's earnings, "will exceed the current consensus estimates of earnings per share and revenues for the second quarter of our fiscal year."
Analysts expected Cisco to earn 5 cents a share on revenues of about $4.5 billion, on a pro forma basis.
— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor,
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