 at the tech sector, let's bring in our panel. We've got Mark Cash, senior equity analyst at Morningstar and Melissa Armo, the founder and owner of the Stock Swoosh, joining us. Mark, I'm going to go to you first. You've got a lot of names on your list that you sent us, but the first one I wanted to kind of hit on was HPQ, Hewlett Packard, and in that Dell realm, we had the Buffett investment into this company. Does it change the bottom line or the metrics for this company? Because I've seen a couple downgrades this week. What does this say for you, for Hewlett Packard? Yeah, so our thesis moving into this is that there's been some exuberance in PC, and so they've had record demand for HP and Dell, for notebooks, with remote working or remote schooling, but at some point the party has got to end. And so we've been kind of cautious about this, that the demand will normalize, and we think it's coming pretty soon. And so the pricing environment will start to get more challenging versus really no discounting that's had to happen in the last couple quarters. And so it's interesting about HPQ, and you saw it, Berkshire taking 11% stake in the company, and so building that up. And so obviously investors like to see that track record like Warren Buffett taking a big stake like that. But so we're still just a little more cautious of HP and PC and printing demand. We think that there's going to be headwinds in the longer term besides this great time right now. And we think the company's doing the right moves, returning capital shareholders, but we're just a little more nervous long term. Yeah, and I think softening demand in some of the lower end PC is what is highlighted on the street. But Melissa, when you look at these names, whether it's HPQ or Dell, I always think about them as legacy hardware makers. Does this investment change anything for you as far as these two stocks go? Well, HPQ had a nice gap up. It was around 35 and then gapped up over 40 just this week. So that was a nice move for the stock. It's the strongest. If you compare HPQ to Dell, Dell is a lot weaker. But again, you've got to look at the overall market and how these stocks are faring with the overall market. The overall market is not at the high. So you can't expect these stocks to be at the highs either. And again, we're still in problems with getting parts and things like chips. There's still supply chain issues going about. It's not like people are going to stop buying computers. It's just that these stocks are struggling right now. But so is the overall market. Definitely the overall market, especially the tech space. But mark another name that you've got on your watch list here is Cisco. The stock's been in a tight range over the last couple of months. Are they doing anything to improve their bottom line? Because it seems like the revenue generation that this legacy player makes doesn't seem to affect the stock. Is the outlook for this company moving forward a positive one? Yes. So if you look at the strategy of Cisco, it's all about software and services and recurring revenue and growing that, becoming a more durable company for investors and less more insulated from IT spending shocks and lolls. So Cisco has definitely made strides in that direction. The majority of sales coming from software and services now and that this software is mostly subscription based. And so that's great to see recurring revenue. And so this is also helping the margin standpoint. And we think Cisco is a very solid operator. It knows kind of it's not a you know, a high growth company. But you know, it does find pockets of growth here and there. And it's and we do like that, you know, it's fine. It's finding success with the hyperscale cloud guys. So Amazon, Amazon's in the world, they're building out their next big data centers, Cisco is actually into this wave of spending where it missed the last one. So it's got some good things, you know, it's a key component of hybrid work. And so as you, you know, push more bandwidth through these pipes, as people are more distributed, you're gonna have to update your infrastructure to all these offices. So there's definitely some good things going for Cisco. But you know, on the flip side, Cisco competes against people who are best of breed. And they're always under attack. So it's kind of this give and take with with Cisco, you know, we obviously think what's it's a great sureholder name, because it's very friendly to shareholders, returning 50% of cash flow, you know, through it's given in its buyback program. So it's a name that you know, it's kind of training around our fair value of 56 right now. So it's name we kind of look, look for if there's a pullback, we think it's a, you know, a great solid operator. Yeah, been consolidating at these levels that 2.8% dividend yield that you mentioned is definitely a positive and in a falling tech environment right now that we're seeing. But Melissa, when you look at a name like Cisco, does it excite you at all? Or do you see just more consolidation for this name? Again, that's nowhere near the heights either that consolidate or have a big move, which could be down or up in the earnings. Remember, next week, one week from today, or actually Wednesday next week, earning season begins. So it's really going to depend on how these stocks bear in the earnings. If you're going to invest, though, if you really want to buy something that's going to move big, even though Cisco isn't going anywhere as far as the company goes, I mean, Microsoft is a lot better investment in something like that in that sector. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lot stronger of a stock. It's been at the highs. It has much, much bigger moves in a stock at Cisco, even though it's pricier. It's more expensive. If you're really, really looking to get in something in that sector, then I'd look for something like Microsoft or even Evidia. Evidia is another really strong stock, even though that's falling today too. We've got to watch the stronger things even though they're more expensive if you want to get in something for a big, big move. And I'm talking about if you're a short term trader, if you're a swing trader, if you're an option, so you want to get big moves and stuff quick in a week or two. Those are the things that I would be watching. All right, Microsoft back under 300. Evidia down 12% so far this week. Maybe some opportunities there. But Mark, you've got some other names here, some secondary names, F5 Networks, AMAT, Anet. Which ones do you like out of that group? Yeah, good question. So, you know, so looking at our risk, I think, you know, they're obviously a huge beneficiary of big data center spending. So Metta and Microsoft rolling out data center initiatives. So they're one of the key suppliers there. So they're riding that tailwind. You know, just like other companies we mentioned earlier, it's just record demand. The question is how soon can they ship and and deliver. So we like that. We think there's been some maybe too much exuberance with Arista. And then for F5, you know, we think it's a company that's can be misunderstood at times. You know, it definitely has pivoted to software. It's doing great job with that pivot. So we expect growth to actually accelerate as they grow that recurring revenue base. And they've actually, they're pretty leveraged to security now. So we like that aspect, you know, security of applications is not going anywhere. F5 is front and center of there. So you kind of peel back the onion of what F5 is doing and moving from this hardware company to more of a software and security company. We think there's some good things to see here. All right. And Melissa, finally, is there any other stocks on your radar moving into the kickoff to earning season next week? Well, the big, the big ones to watch are the financials because you're not going to have the market go back up and over the highs without the financials and they have really been falling. Goldman Sachs charts has been selling off JP and it's been selling off the banter selling off. I'm watching the financials, which are at the beginning of earning season to report. And if they do not report well, are they react negative on a good report? Remember, an environment with rising interest rates then that's not going to fare well for the market going into the spring. Yeah, banks doing well today with those rates rising. All right, great stuff. As always, from our panel, that's Mark Cash, senior equity analyst at Morningstar and Melissa Armo, founder and owner of the Stock Swoosh. That's Petalini. At the tech sector, let's bring in our panel. We've got Mark Cash, senior equity analyst at Morningstar and Melissa Armo, the founder and owner of the Stock Swoosh joining us. Mark, I'm going to go to you first. You've got a lot of names on your list that you sent us. But the first one I wanted to kind of hit on was HPQ, Hewlett Packard. And in that Dell realm, we had the Buffett investment into this company. Does it change the bottom line or the metrics for this company? Because I've seen a couple of downgrades this week. What does this say for you for Hewlett Packard? Yeah, so, you know, our thesis living into this is that the there's been some exuberance in PC. And so they've had, you know, record demand for HP and Dell for notebooks with remote working or remote schooling. But at some point, you know, the party's got to end. And so we've been kind of cautious about this, that this the demand will normalize. And we think it's coming pretty soon. And so, you know, the pricing environment will start to get more challenging versus really no discounting that's had to happen in the last couple quarters. And so, you know, what's interesting about HPQ, and you saw, you know, Berkshire taking like 11% stake in the company. And so, you know, building that up. And so obviously, you know, investors like to see that when you track record like like Warren Buffett taking a big stick like that. But, you know, so we're still just a little more cautious that HP and PC and printing demand kind of we think that there's many headwinds in the longer term besides this, you know, great time right now. And, you know, we think the company's doing the right moves, returning capital shareholders. But we're just a little more nervous in the long term. Yeah. And I think softening demand and some of the lower MPC is what is highlighted on the street. But Melissa, when you look at these names, whether it's HPQ or Dell, I always think about them as legacy hardware makers. Does this investment change anything for you as far as these two stocks go? We had a nice gap up. It was around 35 and then gapped up over 40 just this week. So that was a nice move for the stock. It's the strongest. If you compare HPQ to Dell, Dell is a lot weaker. But again, you've got to look at the overall market and how these stocks are faring with the overall market. The overall market is not at the high. So you can't expect these stocks to be at the highs either. And again, we're still in problems with getting parts and things like chips. There's still supply chain issues going about. It's not like people are going to stop buying computers. It's just that these stocks are struggling right now. But so is the overall market. Definitely the overall market, especially the tech space. But Mark, another name that you've got on your watch list here is Cisco stocks been in a tight range over the last couple months. Are they doing anything to improve their bottom line? Because it seems like, you know, the revenue generation that this legacy player makes doesn't seem to affect the stock. Are the is the outlook for this company moving forward a positive one? Yeah, so if you look at the strategy of Cisco, it's all about software and services and recurring revenue and growing that becoming a more durable company for investors and less more insulated from it spending shocks and lolls. So Cisco has definitely made strides in that direction. You know, the majority of sales coming from software and services now and and that this software is mostly subscription based. And so that's great to see recurring revenue. And so this is also helping the margin standpoint. And we think Cisco is a very solid operator. I mean, it knows kind of it's not a you know, a high growth company. But you know, it does find pocket of growth here and there. And it's and we do like that, you know, it's fine. It's finding success with the hyperscale cloud guys. So Amazon, Amazon's in the world, they start building out their next big data centers. Cisco is actually into this wave of spending where it missed the last one. So it's got some good things. You know, it's a key component of hybrid work. And so as you, you know, push more bandwidth through these pipes as people are more distributed, you're gonna have to update your infrastructure to all these offices. So there's definitely some good things going for Cisco. But you know, on the flip side, Cisco competes against people who are best of breed. And they're always under attack. So it's kind of this give and take with with Cisco, you know, we obviously think it's a great shareholder name because it's very friendly to shareholders returning 50% of the cashflow, you know, through it's given in its buyback program. So it's a name that you know, it's kind of training around our fair value of 56 right now. So it's a name we'd kind of look look for if there's a pullback, we think it's you know, a great solid operator. Yeah, Ben consolidating at these levels at 2.8% dividend yield that you mentioned, is definitely a positive and a falling tech environment right now that we're seeing. But Melissa, when you look at a name like Cisco, does it excite you at all? Or do you see just more consolidation for this name? Again, that's nowhere near the hides either that can consolidate or have a big move, which could be down or up in the earnings. Remember next week, one week from today, or actually Wednesday next week, earning season begins. So it's really going to depend on how these stocks bear in the earnings. If you're going to invest though, if you really want to buy something that's going to move big, even though Cisco isn't going anywhere as far as the company goes, I mean Microsoft is a lot better investment and something like that in that sector as far as I'm concerned, it's a lot stronger of a stock. It's been at the highs, it has much, much bigger moves in a stock at Cisco, even though it's pricier, it's more expensive. If you're really looking to get in something in that sector, then I'd look for something like Microsoft or even Evidia. Evidia is another really strong stock, even though that's falling today too. You've got to watch the stronger things even though they're more expensive if you want to get in something for a big, big move. And I'm talking about if you're a short-term trader, if you're a swing trader, if you're in options that you want to get big moves and stuff quick in a week or two, those are the things that I would be watching. All right, Microsoft, back under 300, Evidia down 12% so far this week, maybe some opportunities there. But Mark, you've got some other names here, some secondary names, F5 Networks, AMAT, A-Net. Which ones do you like out of that group? Yeah, good question. So, you know, so looking at Rista, I think, you know, they're obviously a huge beneficiary of big data center spending. So Metta and Microsoft rolling out data center initiatives. So they're one of the key suppliers there. So they're riding that tailwind, you know, just like other companies we mentioned earlier, it's just record demand. The question is, how soon can they ship and deliver? So we like that. We think there's been some maybe too much exuberance with Rista. And then for F5, you know, we think it's a company that's can be misunderstood at times. You know, it definitely has pivoted to software. It's doing a great job with that pivot. So we expect growth to accelerate as they grow that recurring revenue base. And they've actually, they're pretty leveraged to security now. So we like that aspect. You know, security of applications is not going anywhere. F5 is front and center of there. So you kind of peel back the onion of what F5 is doing and moving from its hardware company to more of a software and security company. We think there's some good things to see here. All right. And Melissa, finally, is there any other stocks on your radar moving into the kickoff to earnings season next week? Well, the big ones to watch are the financials because you're not going to have the market go back up and over the highs without the financials. And they have really been falling. Goldman Sachs charts has been selling off, JPM has been selling off, the banks are selling off. I'm watching the financials which are at the beginning of earnings season to report. And if they do not report well, are they react negative on a good report? Remember an environment with rising interest rates, then that's not going to fare well for the market going into the spring. Yeah, banks doing well today with those rates rising. All right. Great stuff, as always, from our panel that's Mark Cash, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. And Melissa Armo, founder and owner of the Stock Spoosh.