Arista reported 37.7% second-quarter revenue growth but trades at 43.8 times forward earnings, against Cisco's 20.7. Insider Monkey's analysis favors Cisco's risk-adjusted setup, citing accelerating AI revenue and the lower valuation.
Arista's second-quarter revenue climbed 37.7% to $3.04 billion, its first quarter above $3 billion. Non-GAAP operating margin was 49.9%, non-GAAP earnings per share rose about 40%, and management forecast third-quarter revenue of roughly $3.3 billion. The article flags customer concentration: a relatively small number of cloud customers drive a large share of demand, leaving Arista's premium dependent on continued AI-networking growth.
Cisco's fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rose 18% and networking product orders rose 40%; hyperscaler AI infrastructure orders totaled $4 billion in the quarter and $9.3 billion for the year. Cisco said AI infrastructure revenue was roughly $4 billion in fiscal 2026 and expects about $7.5 billion in fiscal 2027. Its price-to-free-cash-flow multiple was about 33, versus roughly 50 for Arista.
