An Earnings Beat and an Upbeat AI Outlook Lifted Arista Networks Stock

Arista Networks (ANET) shares finished Wednesday up 11% after the cloud networking giant reported better-than-expected earnings and raised its outlook.

The company late Tuesday reported revenue of $1.69 billion and net income of $665.4 million, or $2.08 a share, better than analysts had expected.

Jefferies analysts highlighted Arista Networks’ Etherlink switch portfolio, which is designed for the backend of graphics processing units (GPUs) to reduce slowness in AI networks. The analysts said that the technology is important to solidifying the company’s position in the AI era.

Guidance May Be ‘Conservative,’ Analysts Say

Arista Networks’ chief financial officer, Chantelle Breithaupt, said in the company’s earnings conference call that it was lifting its full-year guidance to reflect “at least” 14% revenue growth. Some analysts said that outlook may be conservative, as it assumes a weaker second half that would be unusual for Arista’s industry.

Melius Research analysts said the company is poised to gain from increased AI spending by Microsoft (MSFT), one of Arista Networks’ biggest customers.

The analysts said they wouldn’t be surprised if Arista partnered more closely with Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) to drive sales from cloud hyperscalers—large-scale data centers that deliver massive amounts of computing power and storage capacity to organizations and individuals.

Wednesday’s share-price advance left Arista Networks’ shares up nearly 50% this year.