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Traders at Palma are Bullish on CTXS

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Shares of both Ariba (ARBA) and Omniture (OMTR) are down sharply this morning after RBC Capital’s Robert Breza cut his rating on the stocks to Sector Perform from Outperform.

The downgrades were part of a larger call on enterprise software stocks. Breza asserted this morning that “industry checks continue to show further deterioration in overall enterprise spending as uncertainty into 2009 and beyond weights heavily on many executives’ minds.” Breza writes that “while December has traditionally been a back-end loaded, budget-flush quarter, demand through New Year’s will likely be influenced

Cisco Systems (CSCO) shares are down only 36 cents, or 2% this morning, to $17.03, after the company last night presented a forecast for its January-ending first quarter that had sales falling, versus analysts’ expectation for sales to rise. Despite the drastic disparity in Cisco’s and the Street’s outlook, the shares aren’t taking it too bad, though they may have inspired today’s 40-point drop in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Furthermore, while estimates are coming down for Cisco, nobody’s cut their rating on the stock that I can see, and most seem to expect Cisco to come out of recession in

Goldman Sachs this morning updates its three “Technology Framework Lists,” which include the firm’s top five tech growth picks, its top five tech value plays, and their five least favorite tech names.

Their top five growth picks now include:

• Apple (AAPL)
• Cisco (CSCO)
• Citrix (CTXS)
• Research In Motion (RIMM)
• Visa (V)

New to the list are Cisco, Citrix and RIMM. Removed from the list: Oracle (ORCL). Other slots were created by stocks previously removed by stop-loss rules.

Cisco, Goldman writes, offers a “strong franchise at a very attractive valuation.” Citrix “is in a strong position to address

Citrix Systems (CTXS) shares are trading higher in the late session after a strong Q3 report and better-than-expected Q4 guidance.

For Q3, the osftware company posted revenue of $399 million and non-GAAP profits of 43 cents a share; the Street had been looking for $391.5 million and 37 cents.

For Q4, Citrix sees revenue of $425 million and $440 million, with non-GAAP profits of 46-48 cents a share. The Street consensus has been for $434 million and 45 cents.

After hours, CTXS is up $2.03, or 10.2%, to $22; the stock fell 50 cents in the regular session.