The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%) is little changed today, down just 20 points as of 11:30 a.m. EST. That makes sense -- there were few economic releases, none important enough to warrant a major shift in the markets. Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told CNBC that the Fed's quantitative-easing programs "won't last forever," but Fisher is a noted inflation hawk and at present isn't even a voting member of the Fed.
Instead, traders were left to focus on individual names. Dow component Cisco (CSCO 1.13%) is up better than 1%, outperforming the market ahead of earnings. Other tech names are mixed: Cloud player Rackspace Hosting (RAX +0.00%) has tumbled more than 11%, while Gogo (GOGO 0.87%) has gained 1.4%, adding to what's already been a great week for the recent IPO.
Cisco will report earnings on Wednesday
Networking giant Cisco is set to report earnings on Wednesday. Analysts are looking for the company to post earnings per share of $0.47 on revenue of $12.35 billion. When Cisco last reported earnings back in August, the company exceeded expectations, but shares tumbled after Cisco gave weak guidance and announced a round of layoffs.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs continue to like Cisco. They maintained their conviction buy on the stock in a note last month, raising their price target to $30, and downplaying macro economic concerns that have plagued Cisco in recent weeks. At present, Cisco is trading near $23.70, implying a 19% upside from current levels.
Rackspace reported bad earnings on Monday
With a price-to-earnings ratio near 13, Cisco remains a fairly conservative stock. In contrast, Rackspace has been a highflier, trading at an aggressive valuation as investors have projected rapid growth on the cloud-focused company.
Those projections have gone terribly wrong in 2013. So far, Rackspace is down more than 40% this year, and shares lost another 10% on Tuesday following a disappointing quarter. In the third quarter, Rackspace's net income fell 40% to $0.11 per share, down from $0.19 per share last year. Revenue was up 16%, but costs outstripped growth, as expenses rose 24%.
Rackspace has suffered from increased competition. Amazon Web Services has long been the industry leader, but Microsoft -- with Azure -- is starting to aggressively move into the space.
Gogo up despite downgrade
As bad as Rackspace has been in 2013, Gogo has been equally as good. Shares of the in-flight wireless Internet provider are up more than 52% after going public back in June. Gogo reported great earnings yesterday, prompting the shares to rally more than 20%, as the company's loss came in less than anticipated, and Gogo raised its revenue guidance.
Analysts at a few firms took the opportunity to downgrade Gogo on Tuesday, mostly sighting valuation concerns. UBS cut its rating to Gogo neutral, saying shares were fairly valued, while Evercore Partners did much the same, cutting Gogo to equal weight. In spite of these downgrades, Gogo continues to rally, making it one of the best-performing IPOs of the year.
