Network equipment maker Cisco (CSCO) is not expected
to set the Street on fire but analysts expect the company to at least maintain
its earnings in the fourth quarter, scheduled to be announced on Wednesday.
Analysts on average expect earnings per share of 45
cents and revenue of $11.61 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter.
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Shares of the tech bellwether have been showing signs
of some activity in recent weeks, gaining almost 26 percent over the last one
year though it has fallen 2.1 percent in 2012 so far.
After a period of stagnation there are signs of a
revival in the IT spends of large enterprises in the United States and in
Europe too, where economies are in the grip of a debt crisis.
"We note that large telcos such as Verizon
Business and AT&T are in the process of meaningfully scaling out their Cloud
services infrastructures, an attractive near-term growth opportunity for
Cisco's data center equipment sales," Deutsche Bank Brian Modoff told
Reuters.
Three months back Chief Executive John Chalmers had
cautioned investors that the slowdown in Europe could hurt technology spending.
For fiscal 2013, the company is expected to give a
cautious outlook with Europe nowhere near a solution to solve its debt crisis.
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Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum told Reuters that
accelerating demand from service providers primarily in North America in the
second half of 2012 would likely offset slower orders in enterprise, Cisco's
exposure to Europe and flat public sector spending.
The company's shares are trading slightly more than
nine times their 12-month forward earnings.
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