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Cisco Systems (CSCO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $48.33, moving -0.03% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.28% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.65%.

Coming into today, shares of the seller of routers, switches, software and services had gained 1.96% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 0.29%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.86%.

CSCO will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be November 21, 2018. On that day, CSCO is projected to report earnings of $0.72 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 18.03%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $12.87 billion, up 6.05% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.97 per share and revenue of $51.46 billion. These totals would mark changes of +14.23% and +4.33%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CSCO should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.83% higher within the past month. CSCO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, CSCO is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.3. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.81, which means CSCO is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that CSCO has a PEG ratio of 2.57. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Computer - Networking stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.88 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Computer - Networking industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 217, which puts it in the bottom 15% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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