Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has been one of the top Dow Jones industrials stocks for most of 2018 so far, and while this momentum has been impressive, earnings need to be equally — or even more — impressive to keep investors satisfied. While Cisco did top estimates in its previous quarter, it didn’t seem to be enough for investors at the time.

The company is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results after the markets close on Wednesday. Thomson Reuters consensus estimates are $0.69 in earnings per share (EPS) and $12.77 billion in revenue. The fiscal fourth quarter of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.61 and $12.13 billion in revenue.

Cisco designs, manufactures and sells internet protocol (IP) based networking products and services related to the communications and information technology industry worldwide.

It provides switching products, including fixed-configuration and modular switches, and storage products that provide connectivity to end users, workstations, IP phones, wireless access points and servers, as well as next-generation network routing products that interconnect public and private wireline and mobile networks for mobile, data, voice and video applications.

Excluding Wednesday’s move, Cisco has outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 38% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock is up 15%.

A few analysts weighed in on Cisco ahead of the earnings report:

• Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $48 price target.
• Piper Jaffray has a Buy rating with a $50 price target.
• JPMorgan has a Buy rating.
• Argus has a Buy rating with a $55 target price.
• Credit Suisse has a Hold rating and a $41 target price.

Shares of Cisco were last seen down about 1% at $43.61, with a consensus analyst price target of $49.56 and a 52-week trading range of $30.36 to $46.37.

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