John O'Connell, CFACiscoCSCOTOP PICKNov 30, 2015

Kudos on that choice, because it's not been a market darling (since the dot-com bubble). Riding coattails of stronger players in the space, catching the halo effect. The old adage: "No one ever went broke taking a profit" -- good risk management.

Prefers, and owns, ANET.

He regrets selling it. The chart shows higher highs and higher lows with strong volumes. The RSI is flirting with overbought levels. Lang targets $100 soon to $110. He's waiting for its next report and will jump on weak numbers.

It reports Wednesday. Is up 62% this year, ripping. Is one of the new networking companies that is dominant in the data centre. Wait for a pullback though trades at only 23x forward PE.

One of the few hot tech names from 2000 that didn't run up. Will benefit from data centre demand. Not the only game in town. Not a significant enough moat, may be time to move on.

It reports today. This should benefit from whatever tech comes out. Is up 40% the past year, and expectations are high, expected to generate $15 billion or 8-9% growth over last year. She thinks they will come in line, but should not be punished. Is worried over these high expectations.

Part of IT infrastructure, but $27B acquisition of Splunk really helped drive security business. Finally hit a new high (previous high was March 27, 2000). Phenomenal allocator of capital. Compelling buy. Every year, buys back stock and raises dividend. 

Finally growing revenues again, he's looking for mid-high single-digit revenue growth. AI will bring a much higher recurring revenue stream. Its solutions are so embedded in businesses, he's not worried about clients trying to go it alone with AI.

Dormant for a while, then started to pick up. 12-month price target is $88.25. He wouldn't sell. Hold on, and over the next year you should see it in the high $80s. Has a bit of a dividend. You won't get hurt with this one.

Mostly hardware, but also getting into software security. It's finally gotten back to its breakeven price from the year 2000  :)  Climbing higher, up 23% in last 12 months. Not on his buy list. He owns FIX, LRCX, and ADI. His tech exposure is ~10-20%.

Should do well. Only downside questions are whether it can keep up with demand, and whether it will be the prime provider within data centres? If they have the upper hand and pricing power, great. If not, they'll just trundle along with everybody else.

Lately, it's been getting new clients from competitors. It's been putting up stellar quarters. It had a strong 2025, but got hammered in December, surprisingly. But it is bouncing off lows. The On Balance Volume only now is moving higher. Lang thinks the sell off is ending. A few good days should see this rise, returning to its $80 highs, then up to $100 later this year.

Is up 32% this year and hitting highs last seen in 2002. 

Stock's been performing decently. Technical structure looks OK. Price is above 200-day MA, which is moving higher. 17x forward PE for only 8% earnings growth, where typically in tech you want 10-20%. Not pricey, but not cheap. For growth, you want an NVDA or AMZN.

12-month price target of $75, pretty darn close. Reports tonight. Unless they really surprise, especially on the guidance side, doesn't expect it to get much higher. At $71 you could write a 1-2 week call with a strike price of $77.50.

Historically, is a good allocator of capital (dividends, buybacks), but lacks growth. They partly returned to growth on the $30 billion purchase of Splunk to drive their cybersecurity business. In turn, this drives earnings and margins. Are a free cash flow machine.

Another play in Edge AI. Kinetic for Cities is Edge AI that you can put on sensors around a city for water, traffic, air, everything. Poster child for this application is Singapore. King of routers and switches, but Edge AI will be very intriguing for them. His 12-month price target is $75.50. Yield is 2.44%.