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27 March
Cisco Systems (CSCO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Cisco Systems (CSCO) ended the recent trading session at $49.77, demonstrating a +0.44% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.86%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.22%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.51%.

Heading into today, shares of the seller of routers, switches, software and services had gained 2.57% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 3.76% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.84% in that time.

The upcoming earnings release of Cisco Systems will be of great interest to investors. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.85, down 15% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $12.31 billion, down 15.5% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $3.71 per share and a revenue of $52.43 billion, demonstrating changes of -4.63% and -8.01%, respectively, from the preceding year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Cisco Systems. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.09% lower. Cisco Systems presently features a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Looking at valuation, Cisco Systems is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 13.37. This expresses a discount compared to the average Forward P/E of 15.08 of its industry.

We can also see that CSCO currently has a PEG ratio of 1.91. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Computer - Networking industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.15 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer - Networking industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 152, which puts it in the bottom 40% of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.