Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) reports earnings Tuesday afternoon. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.37 EPS and $827.4 million revenues. For the quarter ahead those estimates are $0.41 EPS and $860.45 million in revenue (up almost $2 million from last week). At $34.80, its 52-week trading range is $20.39 to $38.20. Because of the Omniture acquisition, use caution on trusting analyst targets this quarter and next. At 17.5-times a blended 2010 to 2011 forward earnings (Nov-end), the multiple here is one to watch as it is not as cheap as some software stocks.

Red Hat Inc. (RHT) reports earnings Wednesday afternoon. The Linux box-software creator does have some valuation issues, although admittedly that is just about always the case. Thomson Reuters has estimates at $0.16 EPS and $193.18 million revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.18 EPS and $199.07 million in revenues. At $30.09, the stock is at the upper end of the 52-week trading range of $14.43 to $31.76. This will also mark a fiscal year-end. The estimates a year out are $0.76 EPS and $842.26 million for FEB-2011, so RHT trades at close to 40-times forward earnings and about 6.7-times forward revenues. It seems that all high-value stocks and high-beta stocks have to beat and raise guidance to keep the pundits happy. The average analyst target is close to $32.50.

Although not technically a tech stocks, Best Buy (BBY) reports earnings Wednesday morning. If Best Buy’s business is booming or sinking, you know what is happening at the retail technology level. Thomson Reuters has estimates at $1.79 EPS and $16.06 billion revenues. For the quarter ahead, those estimates are $0.48 EPS and $10.81 billion in revenues. This is also the year-end, and Best Buy reaffirmed a $3.00 to $3.15 range of annual earnings, but an issue in recent quarters in 2009 was that the consumer has been buying lower-priced items in PCs and in flat-panel TVs. If the consumer is obviously up-spending, then there may be good news for tech ahead. At $41.19, the stock is toward the higher point of the 52-week range of $31.25 to $45.55. 
   

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is effectively nothing short of evaluating Cisco Systems (CSCO). The businesses are after the same sort of enterprise-level spending, albeit in different aspects and different spending dollars in most cases. Oracle earnings from Larry Ellison are due Thursday afternoon and Thomson Reuters has estimates are $0.38 EPS and $6.35 billion in revenues with next quarter estimates of $0.53 EPS and $9.55 billion in revenues. The reason for such a change ahead is its buyout of Sun Microsystems, and that could greatly make the guidance a crapshoot. On a 2010-2011 blended forward target basis, Oracle trades with a multiple of 14.8-times forward earnings. That puts this one as not expensive and not cheap. 

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