Cisco, Alcatel And Nokia: Who Can Beat Earnings Expectations?

Though many blue chips have already reported on their most recent quarterly results, the earnings season rolls on this week.

Among the most anticipated reports are those expected from networking giants Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) ALU, Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO and Nokia Corporation (ADR) NOK.

The expectations of Wall Street analysts seem pretty low, with forecasts of lower revenues for all three, and earnings up for Cisco and Nokia, but by only a penny or so per share. That begs the question, are there any upside surprises coming; and if so, from which of these companies?

Below is a quick look at what is expected from these three reports, as well as a peek at some others.

Alcatel Lucent

In its report early Thursday, this French IP and cloud networking provider is expected to report that fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) came to $0.07, according to six Wall Street analysts. That would be up from the $0.08 per share net loss in the previous period, but down from EPS of $0.18 in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The consensus forecast sees revenue totaling $4.33 billion for the quarter, more than 5 percent lower year over year. Full-year revenue if expected to be almost 12 percent lower, with EPS likewise at $0.07. That earnings estimate has dropped two cents in the past 30 days. Net losses were greater than forecast in recent quarters.

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Cisco Systems

The Wall Street forecast calls for this networking and communications giant to post fiscal second-quarter EPS of $0.54 (a penny higher than a year ago) and for revenue to have slipped less than 2 percent to $11.76 billion. EPS topped expectations by up to three cents in recent quarters.

Some 101 Estimize respondents see things a little differently: EPS of $0.56 and revenue of $11.92 billion for the three months that ended in January. Note that Estimize underestimated earnings in the previous two periods. Cisco is scheduled to share its latest results after Wednesday's closing bell.

Nokia

Overall, Wall Street seems to taking a wait-and-see approach to this Finnish company until it completes its merger with Alcatel Lucent. Just three analysts have a consensus EPS estimate of $0.13, or two cents higher than a year ago, as well as somewhat higher than in the past few quarters.

Quarterly revenue came in around $3.5 billion for the first three quarters of 2015, but the consensus of six analysts polled sees that slipping to closer to $3.0 billion for the current quarter and the next. However, after Thursday's reports from Nokia and Alcatel, analysts may update their views on the merged company.

And Others

Other technology companies that Wall Street analysts expect to show at last some earnings growth when they report this week include America Movil, CenturyLink, Cognizant Technology Solutions and CSC.

EPS at Twitter and Zynga will be the same as a year ago, if the consensus forecasts are accurate.

And earnings declines are predicted for Activision Blizzard, Akamai Technologies and Groupon, as well as net losses for FireEye and Yelp.

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.