Today, most significant stock market indexes traded up -- it was a good day for the bulls. This positive momentum continued into the after-hours trading space, with many top names adding to their gains for the day.
As ever, though, this wasn't necessarily the case for all issuers. Read on to find out how three favorites are doing in post-market action.
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Cisco gives good guidance
Investors are generally happy with the earnings report delivered by Cisco Systems (CSCO +2.48%) after market close. The stock is one of the most heavily traded after hours, and is up a cautiously optimistic 2% as of this writing.
For the quarter, Cisco booked revenue of just under $13 billion, a 4% improvement on a year-over-year basis and higher than the average analyst estimate of $12.9 billion. The IT equipment maker booked a profit of $3.2 billion, 8% better than the Q3 2018 number. On a per-share basis, this was $0.78, slightly ahead of the prognosticators' expected $0.77.
More encouragingly, Cisco provided Q4 guidance that well exceeded outside projections. The company expects to grow its revenue by 4.5% to 6.5% on a year-over-year basis, well above the analyst average of 3.5%. Per-share earnings should amount to $0.80 to $0.82, said the company, more or less in line with the $0.81 modeled by analysts.
This assuaged some fears that the company would be hit by the increasingly bitter U.S.-China trade war. The provided numbers don't indicate much anticipated damage. But this situation is ongoing and needs to be monitored by anyone invested in companies like Cisco that are very active in China.
Ford: Steering around a roadblock?
Speaking of trade wars, Ford Motor Company (F +0.91%) seems to have dodged some collateral damage (for now, at any rate).
Early today, numerous media outlets were reporting that the Trump administration would delay, for six months, a decision on planned auto tariffs that was to be made by May 18. Those tariffs, aimed at vehicles and certain related goods coming from countries such as Japan, Mexico, and Germany, would have run as high as 25%.
Industry insiders and pundits warn that the tariffs would make certain auto parts far more expensive for manufacturers in this country, thus raising their costs.
Judging by after-hours trading, investors aren't mollified by this scuttlebutt -- six months isn't that far away, after all. Although Ford stock is being quite actively traded, it's currently down marginally from its closing price today.
SiriusXM drives home a new product
Satellite radio provider SiriusXM Holdings (SIRI +0.00%) has rolled out a new connected-car product package from one of its business units.
Today SiriusXM said that its Automatic Labs had released Connected Car Assistant, a hardware and software bundle that (in the company's words) allows "most vehicles model year 1996 or later [to] be transformed into connected vehicles." For $99.99, owners of such automobiles receive an adapter and download a smartphone app that together upgrade their car's capabilities.
According to SiriusXM, the juiced-up ride will have features such as crash alert, integration with Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices in the home, and cashless toll payments. Connected Car Assistant is the latest in a series of vehicle enhancement products released by Automatic Labs.
To be honest, Connected Car Assistant doesn't sound like a potential killer app -- similar products exist already. Yet it's inexpensive, plus investors might be lightly encouraged that SiriusXM is making dedicated attempts to broaden its revenue base away from satellite radio subscriptions. The company's stock is one of the most actively traded post-market issues, and is currently up slightly from its closing price.
