Rosenblatt upgraded Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET) to Buy from Neutral, assigning a $180 price target.
The firm noted that its previous downgrade in April 2024 had been based on concerns that AI data center architectures would favor white-box Ethernet switches, potentially benefiting competitors such as Celestica, Cisco, and NVIDIA.
However, Rosenblatt later upgraded the stock to Neutral in April 2025, citing improved competitive positioning with major customers including Microsoft and Meta, as well as new customer wins such as Google.
The latest upgrade reflects increased confidence in Arista’s XPO strategy introduced at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference, along with a better understanding of the scale of front-end data center wins with Google and Anthropic.
The firm highlighted Arista’s substantial deferred revenue balance of $5.4 billion and strong demand for scale-out Ethernet and switching and routing solutions. It expects revenue growth to exceed guidance of 25% in 2026 and 20% in 2027.
While consensus estimates already project growth of 27% in 2026 and 22% in 2027, Rosenblatt believes these figures imply stable market share, whereas Arista could potentially achieve closer to 40% revenue growth in both years by maintaining share with Microsoft and Meta and gaining share with Google.
The $180 price target is based on a 32.5x multiple applied to estimated 2027 earnings of approximately $5.50 per share.
