Cisco Crushed After Earnings (CSCO)

Shares of Cisco Systems CSCO have been crushed on heavy volume today after the company reported a strong quarter, but issued disappointing forward-looking guidance. CEO John Chambers offered a muted view of his company's market, saying CSCO is seeing "mixed signals" from their customers. During Thursday's trading session, CSCO shares have plunged 9.42% to $21.50. More than 100 million shares have already changed hands compared to a daily average of 50 million. Big-cap technology investors on the Street must be reeling at this point. First, it was the unexpected departure of Hewlett-Packard HPQ CEO Mark Hurd, which sent that stock plummeting. Yesterday, Intel INTC was downgraded at Robert Baird and had estimates cut at Wedbush and J.P. Morgan, which promptly sent the stock and the entire chip space into a tailspin. Today, it is CSCO getting absolutely hammered. These three names, HPQ, INTC, and CSCO are widely owned, and you can bet that many large investors had them all in their portfolio. Ouch...