Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported its fourth quarter earnings today after the market close. The company showed earnings during the quarter of 35 cents per share, and the actual earnings for the quarter came out to 36 cents a share excluding special items.

The company will host its quarterly conference 4:30 PM EDT, and we will be covering the entire call, so be sure to refresh your page frequently to make sure you catch all the updated action.

4:25 pm - We have about 5 more minutes before the call gets started. The stock is trading down 0.3% in after hours trading at this time. Stay tuned, we should be under way shortly.

4:29 pm - Just about to get started here... they are playing some easy listening Fleetwood Mac music for us here while we wait for the call to get started.

4:31 pm - getting started now, currently just going over the SEC rules for the call and earnings release

4:34 pm - call is going to be slightly longer today because we are going to look at 3 areas.... Q4 2007, Full year 2007, and next major shift we can expect to see for Cisco

4:36 pm - CEO John Chambers now taking over for his opening remarks. This was the strongest quarter they have seen in many years. Another record from a revenue GAAP and non GAAP income.

In today's WSJ, there is an article discussing the potential lightening up on the pace of share buybacks from public U.S. corporations. The reason is simple: the tightening of capital and lending is causing a liquidity crunch and putting balance sheets more at risk. The WSJ stated that Standard & Poor's estimated that $122 billion was spent by U.S. companies to repurchase stock in Q2 2007 alone. Right now Wall Street is in love with share buybacks. After all, a share buyback in the open market can create a substantial floor in a stock. If it doesn't create a floor it can at least offset some major selling.

Companies that buy their own shares do not necessarily retire the shares permanently. These shares become treasury stock that can be used to fund future buyouts that maybe the company thinks aren't feasible today. The shares can also be used as a form of currency to fund other ventures down the road. But the shares bought back are not in the common stock that receives dividends from the company.

Networking giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) recently has put up some good quarterly numbers and the stock has gone from teen-age status to the high $20's. Currently at $28.40 and encroaching on its 52-week high of $28.99. Cisco's stock traded heavily and up, in advance of the April 30th quarterly results released in early May. The fast money had piled in expecting even better results and a breakthrough. It did not quite happen.

Cisco has a history back in its heyday of beating numbers consistently and raising forward numbers. Investors were hoping for the same this past April and January quarters. Cisco has been growing its business in a solid fashion. I estimate the fiscal year fourth quarter ending July 31, for revenues of $9.28 billion and earnings per share of $.35. With these results, Cisco would have earned $1.33 per share for fiscal year 2007 ending July 31st. For fiscal year July 31 2008, I believe Cisco will earn $1.60-1.65 on revenues just over $40 billion, up from $34 billion this fiscal year. Bottom line is Cisco is back !!

With its global dominance, both in networking products and its distribution, Cisco is able to take advantage of pockets of growth anywhere in the world. The emerging markets division of Cisco, which include India and China, can see revenue growth of 35-50% for the foreseeable future. Broadband access is critical to emerging economies and Cisco is the best positioned company to handle that vital need.

Cisco should comfortably achieve or exceed July expectations and the stock could run up to the mid $30's.Cisco is back!

Georges Yared is the chief investment strategist of Yared Investment Research.

Will Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) beat earnings expectations today after it releases Q3 numbers? Georges pondered on that this morning, and here we are -- after the bell and waiting for Cisco to excite or disappoint. It's not the dot-com boom anymore, and Cisco's not that exciting of a company -- or is it?

The recent purchase of WebEx by the networking giant signals that Cisco wants to expand beyond its core hardware and networking operating system markets. This makes sense for the company's diversification I think. What will a web-based conferencing and collaboration purchase mean to the company? We'll probably find out today, as I'm sure that question will arise.

Remember to use the "Refresh" key on your web browser to make sure you see all the updates to this liveblog, which will happen every few minutes. All times below are in EST. With that, let's get going!

4:30pm -- waiting on hold for the Q1 call to begin...check out Cisco's Q3 detail here while we wait.