New York, Feb 16, 2026, 16:56 EST — Market closed.
- Arista shares rose 4.8% on Friday, swinging in a wide range after results
- U.S. markets were shut on Monday for Presidents Day; trading resumes Tuesday
- Investors are watching whether the AI-networking boost holds into the week
Arista Networks (ANET) shares head into Tuesday’s reopen with the stock still digesting a sharp post-earnings move, after U.S. markets shut on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. The stock ended Friday up 4.8% at $141.59, after trading between $138.00 and $148.77. (MarketWatch)
Why this matters now: Arista is one of the cleaner read-throughs on data-center networking demand, where spending can move fast and order timing can whipsaw a quarter. After a big swing into a long weekend, the first session back often tells traders whether the move had real follow-through or was just short covering and fast money.
The next question for ANET holders is simple: was Friday a reset higher, or the high-water mark. The stock’s range on the day left plenty of room for both answers.
Arista’s latest quarterly report, released late Thursday, put fresh numbers on that debate. The company said fourth-quarter revenue rose 28.9% to $2.488 billion and GAAP net income was $955.8 million, while it guided first-quarter revenue to about $2.6 billion; it also pointed to new data-center platforms and automation tools tied to AI networking. “We exceeded both our AI networking and campus expansion goals,” Chief Executive Jayshree Ullal said, while CFO Chantelle Breithaupt said the company “surpass[ed] $1 billion in quarterly net income”; Arista also flagged risks that include customer concentration, supply constraints and trade or export restrictions.
Arista competes with larger rivals such as Cisco and Juniper in parts of switching and routing, but investors have been treating it as a higher-beta way to play AI-related buildouts inside cloud and enterprise networks. That cuts both ways if customer budgets tighten.
Friday’s rise came in a market that turned cautious into the holiday, even after inflation data helped early risk appetite. The S&P 500 ended slightly higher, while the Nasdaq finished down. (Reuters)
On valuation, the bar is not low: Arista’s market value is about $183 billion, and the shares trade at roughly 55 times earnings based on the latest data.
The risk for bulls is that network orders prove lumpier than the post-earnings tape suggests, or that big customers slow spending and push projects out a quarter. In that setup, a stock that just made a fast move can give it back quickly.
What investors watch next starts with Tuesday’s opening prints and volume, and then moves to management’s next public stops: Arista has said it will appear at a Bernstein tech event on Feb. 25 and the Morgan Stanley TMT conference on March 3. (Arista)
