Ahead of QLogic’s earnings call three months ago, I wrote about the company’s slacking financial performance and the market’s rather surprising response. The networking equipment maker posted major declines for several consecutive quarters, but many analysts stuck with their view that the firm’s strong OEM relations will be sufficient to reverse the downward trend.

QLogic’s second quarter results eventually came through, but there was little reason to celebrate. The company fell short of the more optimistic predictions and the market’s hopefulness cooled down for a stretch, right until Friday last week.

The vendor’s stock surged 16 percent in after hour trading, after the company beat analysts’ consensus estimate by a fair margin. QLogic reported a profit of 20 cents a share on sales of $119.4 million for the third fiscal quarter of 2013, compared to the 17 cents and $115.6 million that Wall Street expected.

Revenue is down 16.4 percent from a year ago, but it’s up 1.3 percent sequentially, while gross margin increased 1.3 from the second quarter.

“During the December quarter, we reported financial results that exceeded our expectations,” CEO Simon Biddiscombe said in a statement. “We are seeing stabilization in our business and I believe our investments in innovative technologies for new market opportunities position us well to deliver future growth.”

QLogic is back on the saddle thanks to growth in the company’s Network business. According to Zacks, a 8.4 percent increase in sales of networking equipment helped the firm offset the double digit declines in saw in the Host and Silicon segments.

Investors and analyst are feeling optimistic. Forbes reported that Morgan Stanley upped its rating on QLogic to Equal Weight from Underweight, while other analysts who follow the stock retain their faith in the company’s strong channel presence and product pipeline.