Cisco's earnings today got fiscal 2008 off to a healthy start, as expected, although the company's stock is sagging after hours.

Cisco's non-GAAP net income of 37 cents per share beat out the analysts' estimate of 36 cents, according to Thomson First Call . (See Cisco Reports Q1.)

Analysts had been anticipating another cheery quarter from Cisco, which kicked into high gear last quarter by raising its forecasts. Cisco is now saying sales could grow 12 to 17 percent per year in the long run. (See Cisco Gets Bold With Guidance.)

But following a day when the stock market was down, Cisco's shares fell in early after-hours trading, down $2.63 (8%) at $30.12. It's possible investors were banking on even better news, considering how upbeat Cisco has been during its last few earnings calls. That appears to be a wider theme developing in the tech market. (See Acme Shares Beaten After Earnings.)

As usual, CEO John Chambers used the earnings call to note Cisco's own adoption of collaborative, Web-based applications, a "Web 2.0" trend the company thinks will become a major trend among enterprises. "I cannot overstress the importance of leading this market transition from products to processes," he said.

For its first quarter, which ended Oct. 27, Cisco reported revenues of $9.6 billion and net income of $2.2 billion, or 35 cents per share, compared with fourth-quarter revenues of $9.4 billion and net income of $1.9 billion, or 31 cents per share.

For its first quarter a year ago, Cisco reported revenues of $8.2 billion and net income of $1.6 billion, or 26 cents per share.

Cisco predicted second-quarter revenues would be up 16 percent from the previous year. That comes out to roughly $9.79 billion -- a shade less than the $9.81 billion analysts were forecasting for the second quarter, according to First Call.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading