Cisco On Deck

Cisco will report quarterly results late Tuesday, and analysts expect another solid quarter from the networking giant.

Wall Street analysts are expecting earnings of 31 cents a share on sales of $8.28 billion, up 25% from the year-ago quarter, according to Thomson Financial, and many expect Cisco to beat the published estimates.

But with the stock up about 60% in the last six months, it’s not clear how much higher Cisco shares can go for now. The stock fell sharply in mid-January on multiple valuation downgrades, but has recouped half those losses in the last week as traders have begun to anticipate positive results.

Cisco shares gained 1.4% on Monday.

Stocks traded mixed Monday, with blue chips edging higher on Wal-Mart’s results and tech stocks weighed down by a negative Barron’s write-up on Microsoft .

KLA-Tencor , Cognizant and Novatel gained on their results.

Rambus surged 24% on an FTC licensing ruling that was better than feared.

NetRatings soared on an acquisition by Nielsen.

Google investors continued to take profits.

After the close, National Semi slipped after lowering guidance.

The Nasdaq lost 5 to 2470, the S&P 500 slipped 1 to 1447, and the Dow added 8 to 12,661. Volume declined to 2.48 billion shares on the NYSE, and rose to 1.97 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 17-15 on the NYSE, and 17-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 51% on the NYSE, and 49% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 299-12 on the NYSE, and 188-41 on the Nasdaq.