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

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Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) closed at $47.06 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.07% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.8% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.12%.

Heading into today, shares of the seller of routers, switches, software and services had lost 1.61% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.72% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.07% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CSCO as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, CSCO is projected to report earnings of $0.81 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 8%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $13.07 billion, down 0.02% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.36 per share and revenue of $52.90 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.39% and +1.92%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CSCO should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.59% lower. CSCO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, CSCO currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.88. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.96, which means CSCO is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that CSCO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.04. 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. The Computer - Networking industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.04 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer - Networking industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 88, putting it in the top 35% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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