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Arista Networks (ANET) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Arista Networks (ANET - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $212.09, moving +0.91% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.01%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.35%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.45%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the cloud networking company had lost 5.75% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 5.51% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 7.29% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from ANET as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 21, 2019. On that day, ANET is projected to report earnings of $2.04 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 19.3%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $589.69 million, up 26.04% from the year-ago period.

ANET's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.73 per share and revenue of $2.14 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +37.79% and +29.93%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ANET should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. ANET is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Investors should also note ANET's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 27.19. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.88, which means ANET is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, ANET's PEG ratio is currently 1.25. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Communication - Components was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.59 at yesterday's closing price.

The Communication - Components industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 31, putting it in the top 12% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow ANET in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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