Cisco earnings: What numbers to follow from the network giant

Cisco Systems Inc. reports earnings after the bell on Wednesday and while the network giant’s expected to report a gain in revenue, much of that is forecast to come from equipment, rather than from software sales.

Analysts expect supply-chain improvements to help Cisco CSCO move product inventory with annual recurring revenue, or ARR, projected to increase by 8% from a year ago to $24.51 billion, boosted by software sales. ARR is a metric often used by software-as-a-service companies to show how much revenue the company can…