Can Applied Materials Or Cisco Systems Offer Up An Earnings Surprise?

• Two industry leading tech companies are expect to take their turns on the earnings stage this week.
• Wall Street analysts are looking for some earnings growth, but smaller revenues from each of them.
• One of them has had a better record of exceeding consensus earnings estimates in recent quarters.

While much of the attention will be on the quarterly results from the big retailers this week, other highlights include the earnings reports due from a couple of technology giants.

From both global semiconductor and solar photovoltaic manufacturing equipment maker Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT and the largest networking company in the world, Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO, Wall Street analysts are looking for marginal bottom-line growth, compared to a year ago. However, the top line is expected to have slipped in both cases.

Below is a quick look at what analysts expect from these two reports, followed by a glance at some of the other most anticipated earnings results scheduled for the rest of this week.

Applied Materials

Wall Street's consensus forecast for Applied Materials calls for fiscal second-quarter earnings per share (EPS) to have risen three cents from a year ago to $0.32. Analysts seem certain, as their estimate has not changed in the past 60 days, and the range of 19 individual estimates is only $0.31 to $0.33. EPS have been within a penny of expectations in the past four quarters. The Estimize forecast is $0.33 per share.

The forecast from a consensus of 19 Estimize respondents has revenue in the quarter totaling $2.42 billion, which is in line with Wall Street expectations and the midpoint of the range of company guidance. Applied Materials is scheduled to report after Thursday's closing bell.

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Cisco

When this Dow Jones Industrial Average component shares its fiscal third-quarter results late Wednesday, the Wall Street forecast is that it will post EPS of $0.55, along with revenue of $11.97 billion. That would compare with the $0.54 per share and $12.14 billion reported in the same period of last year. EPS have topped estimates by three cents (more than 5 percent) in the past three quarters.

The 112 Estimize survey respondents have similar expectations for the period: earnings of $0.56 per share on $11.97 billion in revenue. That compares to the $0.57 per share on $11.92 billion posted in second period, which Estimize underestimated by two cents and more than $100,000, respectively.

And Others

Other companies Wall Street analysts expect to show at least some earnings growth when they report later this week include American Eagle Outfitters, Campbell Soup, Hormel Foods, Lowe's, Salesforce.com and Target.

The consensus forecast calls for EPS at Urban Outfitters to be the same as in the year-ago period, while EPS at Deere, Dick's Sporting Goods, Gap, Staples and Wal-Mart will be smaller than a year ago, if analysts' expectations are on target.

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