7 Stocks you need to know for Thursday

Cisco (CSCO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat earnings estimates by a penny Tuesday evening after the market closed. The stock closed up more than 6% on Wednesday.

A UBS analyst reported that Microsoft (MSFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) was planning a $20 billion share buyback program to help boost the company's falling stock price.

Cardinal Health (CAH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports earnings Thursday morning before the market opens. Analysts expect EPS of $0.95.

An accounting change has helped AMBAC Inc. (ABK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) make its largest quarterly earnings gain since the company went public 17 years ago. The stock closed up more than 23%.

Traders made Freddie Mac (FRE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 on Wednesday after the mortgage giant reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and would be cutting its dividend from a quarter to a nickel.

Whole Foods Inc. (WFMI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) fell by more than 13% on Wednesday after missing analyst estimates by seven cents in its earnings announcement after the bell on Tuesday.

Reporting earnings Thursday morning before the bell, DirecTV (DTV | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is expected to announce earnings per share of $0.40.