Cramer on BloggingStocks: Cisco's tough sell

Posted Aug 5th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Cramer on BloggingStocks

From TheStreet.com Network

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Cisco's earnings are supposed to be spectacular. If they're not, you can expect a quick sell-off.

I do not envy John Chambers. He's given out tons of interviews in the past few weeks on all sorts of big-think business topics. He has seen his stock go from being liked to almost universally loved by the analyst community. Numbers have been raised, target prices bumped, recommendations turned even more bullish than in past quarters.

And tonight when Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) (Cramer's Take) reports, Chambers has to live up to that billing.

Is he being set up to fail? I like Cisco very much, and have ever since it became clear to me that the Mobile Internet Tsunami is going to be the biggest trend since the Net itself and the personal computer beforehand. Cisco's got its tentacles in every single part of the enterprise.

But, with the Nasdaq taking out 2000 and with the index up 27%, I do not know how he tops his own story. I do not know how he can tamp enthusiasm without cutting short the optimism that is imbued both in the sectors he's in and in the index his firm's on.

I know the world is focused on the unemployment number that comes up on Friday, and everyone has high expectations for a major cessation in job loss. That's the right focus.

And as someone who owns Cisco for Action Alerts PLUS, I am happy to hold it into the quarter and buy more on weakness. I just think that as events go, we have to expect that almost anything Chambers says will be a letdown, unless he directly talks about enterprise spending picking up dramatically worldwide and that is so not his style.

My take? If you have no tech on your sheets or are underinvested in the sector, do yourself a favor and wait until after the quarter. If it is as great as everyone thinks it will be, I don't know how much it can still go up right now.

But given the expectations, if it isn't perfect, you could expect to see a very quick sell-off and then, perhaps, a better buying opportunity.

Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Cisco.

Tags: Cisco Systems, CSCO, featured, John Chambers, Mobile Internet Tsunami, tech sector, unemployment

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-05-2009 @ 2:37PM

dajt57 said...

seriously. this man is not an expert. he just has a tv show.

8-05-2009 @ 2:39PM

Frank said...

Why does anyone listen to this lying conniving SOB at all. He was complicit in the banking collapse as any executive on Wall Street. He had an audience that listened and acted on his decitful tactics, with far-reaching negative effects. He should be unemployed, not published.

8-05-2009 @ 3:12PM

Seth said...

Ah I knew I would find that jerk hawking that Dating Service. Yeap you are always on subject. That is how you can tell AOL is wacked--

8-05-2009 @ 9:50PM

bnfox1957 said...

Everybody knows by now that Cramer is a complete tool - in every sense of the word. The only people who seem to give him credence are that last corral of sheep who still believe all the crap on TV. But the real kicker here is, of course, that as it turns out, Cisco's earnings were spectacularly less than "spectacular" - more along the lines of spectacularly bad. The tool has spoken.