Arista Networks (ANET) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

ANET

In the latest trading session, Arista Networks (ANET - Free Report) closed at $104.30, marking a +0.76% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.95% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.28%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the cloud networking company had gained 1.01% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.21% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.1% in that time.

Arista Networks will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.92, up 35.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $978.22 million, up 38.3% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.70 per share and revenue of $3.91 billion. These totals would mark changes of +28.92% and +32.49%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Arista Networks. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Arista Networks currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Arista Networks has a Forward P/E ratio of 28.01 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.22.

We can also see that ANET currently has a PEG ratio of 1.78. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Communication - Components stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.83 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Communication - Components industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 98, putting it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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