Brocade, HP: After-Hours Trading

Shares of Brocade Communcations(BRCD) gained in late trades on Monday after the networking equipment company blew past Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal fourth-quarter results.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company reported adjusted earnings of $79 million, or 16 cents a share, for the three months ended Oct. 29 with revenue reaching $550 million, up 9% on a sequential basis but virtually flat from last year's equivalent total.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a profit of 10 cents a share in the latest quarter on revenue of $527.4 million.

The stock was last quoted at $4.72, up 5.6%, on volume of more than 500,000, according to Nasdaq.com.

Brocade saw sequential revenue growth in both its storage and Ethernet businesses. Revenue from storage equipment totaled $361.3 million, which was still down 4% from last year, while Ethernet products generated sales of $189.2 million, up 11% from a year ago, with strong demand coming from service provider and enterprise customers.

"Brocade achieved outstanding results in Q4 that were led by record revenues for our Ethernet business, fast adoption of our 16 Gbps Fibre Channel products, improvements in profitability, and a record cash flow quarter from operations," said Michael Klayko, the company's CEO, in a statement. "These strong performances demonstrate that we are executing well on our long-term strategy. Looking at FY 12, we plan to leverage this momentum along with our highly differentiated innovation strategy, expanding product portfolio, and our strong routes to market."

Based on Monday's regular session close at $4.48, Brocade shares were down mor! e than 1 2% so far in 2011. The stock has been volatile since the start of summer. It reached a 52-week high of $7.30 on June 3 but bottomed out a little more than two months later at $3.18 on August 8.

Wall Street had mostly adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward the company with 21 of the 33 analysts covering the shares at either hold (18) or underperform (3).

Hewlett-Packard

It was a seesaw extended session for Dow component HP(HPQ), which got an initial bump higher following its fiscal fourth-quarter report but then turned lower as the company reined in its outlook for fiscal 2012.

On an adjusted basis, the company delivered earnings of $2.4 billion, or $1.17 a share, for the three months ended in October with revenue totaling $32.3 billion. That performance compares with year-ago equivalent earnings of $3.1 billion, or $1.33 a share, on revenue of $33.3 billion, but was ahead of the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for a profit of $1.13 a share on revenue of $32 billion.

CFO Catherine Lesjak said the company was "remaining cautious" about fiscal 2012, and HP forecast non-GAAP earnings of 83 cents a share for its fiscal first quarter ending in January. Wall Street's current consensus view is for a profit of $1.11 a share. For the full year, the Dow component sees non-GAAP earnings of at least $4 per share vs. the average analysts' estimate of $4.54 a share.

The stock was last quoted at $26.32, down 2%, on volume of 2.9 million, according to Nasdaq.com. The shares have fallen more than 35% so far in 2011 as Wall Street worries over stalling top-line growth and strategic direction. Meg Whitman took over as CEO for Leo Apotheker in late September, and is working to reposition the tech giant.

Other stocks making moves in late trades included Perfect World(PWRD), which lost 8% to $10.50! on volu me of around 15,000 after the China-based online game developer reported a sequential decline in revenue in its latest quarter; and Zale(ZLC), which added 12% to $4.01 on volume of more than 20,000 after the jewelry retailer posted a narrower than expected loss for its fiscal first quarter with same-store sales rising nearly 6%.

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