Cisco surpassed analyst expectations again when it posted fourth-quarter earnings of $2.3 billion on sales of $9.4 billion.

The results exceeded analyst estimates of $9.29 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.24 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Earnings do not include expenses and other items. Including those items, Cisco recorded a profit of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter ended July 28.

Revenue was up 18% over last year’s fourth quarter, and earnings for the same period were up 21.2%.

For the 2007 fiscal year, Cisco recorded sales of $34.9 billion and earnings – excluding expenses and other items – of $8.4 billion. Revenue was up 22.6% over fiscal 2006 and earnings increased 21.6% over the last fiscal year.

Scientific-Atlanta, acquired in February 2006, contributed $2.8 billion to net sales for fiscal 2007, compared with $989 million for fiscal 2006.

Fiscal 2007 results again exceeded analyst expectations, which were $34.78 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.34 billion.

At $1.9 billion, routing revenue was up 14% in the quarter from the fourth quarter of FY 2006. Orders for high-end routers grew in excess of 30% from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Switching revenue was $3.3 billion, up 18%.

Revenue from Advanced Technologies -- unified communications, storage, security, and others -- was $2.2 billion, up 24% from last year's fourth quarter, and services revenue, $1.5 billion, was up 19%.

U.S. business improved in the quarter after two soft quarters in the enterprise market in Q2 and Q3. In U.S. business overall, average growth was in the upper teens, "the best we've seen in a number of quarters," said Cisco CEO John Chambers. In enterprise specifically -- excluding federal government business -- orders grew 12% in Q4, vs. mid single digit order growth in the second and third quarters.

Federal orders grew 40% over the fourth quarter of FY 2006, and U.S. service provider orders grew 30% over the same period.

Cisco's new video-based TelePresence virtual meeting system is relied upon by the company to drive enterprise demand. Orders for that system in Q4 grew 400% over the third quarter of fiscal year, and Cisco has deployed 110 systems since its introduction last fall.

On a global basis, enterprise orders -- including public sector -- grew in the mid-teens. Service provider orders grew in the low 20% range.