This quarter may be a turning point for Cisco Systems.
Shares of the legacy technology giant fell 2% to around $38.50 heading into the company’s Thursday earnings report after the bell as investors braced for yet another disappointment.
Cisco’s stock plunged after each of its last two earnings reports, now down more than 18% from when it reported its third straight quarterly revenue drop in August. Cisco forecast between $0.69 and $0.71 in earnings per share and between $11.7 billion and $11.9 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Bill Baruch, the president and founder of Blue Line Capital and Blue Line Futures, said he “wasn’t enthusiastic” about Cisco heading into the report.
“If you’re looking for value in tech, this is it,” he told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday, citing Cisco’s price-to-earnings multiple — comparatively low for the tech industry at around 14.6 times forward earnings — and its nearly 4% dividend yield.
“On a charting basis, there is some support to believe in there at $30-$35,” Baruch said, citing a chart with what he said was “a little bit of a trend line, a floor from July of 2017.”
“This is the area you want to be looking at it,” he said. “I’m not enthusiastic about it. I’d see how it is after earnings. But there is value here if you’re trying to search for it.”
Quint Tatro, chief investment officer at Joule Financial, said investors looking to capitalize on the rotation from growth into value may have a trade with Cisco.
“They can not only look at industrials and more cyclical [plays], but I think they can look at stodgy tech,” Tatro said in the same “Trading Nation” interview.
“This is a stock that’s been beat up. It’s not a real sexy play. It’s a slow grower, but they have a stellar balance sheet,” he said. “I think the whisper’s 11.9 billion [in revenue], 74-cent EPS. I think if they come anywhere in that ballpark and have any positive comments whatsoever, I think this stock can see a pretty significant uptick.”
Disclosure: Tatro and Joule Financial own shares of Cisco Systems.
