Piper Sandler’s James Fish Calls Arista Networks (ANET) a Top Pick. Here’s What He Sees Ahead Farooq Thu, November 12, 2026 at 6:11 PM EST 4 min read ANET +6.01% ^GSPC -0.35% ^DJI -0.36% TFC -0.68% ^IXIC -0.39% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
We just published a list of the 10 Best Growth Stocks for the Next 5 Years and Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) ranked 7th on this list.
Technology stocks went from celebration to rout within two sessions this month. On Wednesday, November 4, equities rallied after Democrats swept Congress in the midterm elections. By Thursday, the S&P 500 had fallen 4.36% and the Dow had lost 3.44%, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 5.52% lower, its worst day since April 2025. The drop pushed the tech-heavy index into correction territory, at least 10% below its October 6 record close.
The selling did not stop there, and the S&P 500 went on to post its worst week since June. Truist chief markets strategist Keith Lerner called the action "something of a buyers' strike" in technology. Breadth was thin, with only about one in seven S&P 500 stocks rising on the day of the steepest decline.
The election result mattered for reasons that go beyond party control. eToro market analyst Jakub Rochlitz said rising electricity prices turned data-center construction into a political issue during the campaign. In his view, markets now assume that the artificial intelligence buildout will be slower and more expensive, which rewrites growth expectations for every company along the supply chain.
The damage was sharpest in semiconductors. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 12% and the Nasdaq-100 fell 6.4%, the biggest one-day declines for both gauges since March 2020. Readers following the group can find more names in our list of the most promising technology stocks to buy right now.
Anxiety about AI spending had been building well before the vote. Bloomberg reported that interest rates were climbing, borrowing to fund the buildout was growing, and public backlash against data centers was spreading. Investors are now demanding higher yields from heavily indebted data-center builders, which raises the cost of every new project.
The numbers show how quickly sentiment turned. An October 30 sell-off erased more than $1 trillion of tech market value, and chipmakers surrendered more than $1.5 trillion on November 5 alone. Analyst-driven picks from the same corner of the market are collected in our list of the best aggressive growth stocks to buy according to Wall Street analysts.
Not everyone read the move as a break in the trend. Argent Capital Management portfolio manager Jed Ellerbroek told Reuters that the selling felt like capitulation among the beneficiaries of data-center spending, though the size of the move looked outsized to him. His comment shows that even investors who saw capitulation in data-center names questioned the scale of the decline.
Arista Networks made it to our list because it has a five-year EPS growth rate of 40.70% and an average upside potential of 26%.
Piper Sandler analyst James Fish raised his price target on Arista Networks to $261 from $240 on November 4 and kept an Overweight rating, calling the stock a top pick. He pointed to further acceleration in the third quarter, strong profitability and an initial 2027 view that supports the durability of growth.
The results gave him support. Revenue grew 58.5% to $3.66 billion, the fastest pace since the company's IPO, and the non-GAAP operating margin reached 49.1%. Arista Networks sells client-to-cloud networking for AI, data center, campus and routing. The shares rose the day after the report. Investors also like that management's fourth-quarter guidance points to more growth, not a pause.
The risks are specific and tied to how the company sources and sells its products. Arista depends on a predominant merchant silicon vendor for key components, and a handful of large customers account for much of its sales. Either dependency could limit how fast the company can grow, and investors weigh both against the strength of demand. You might also be interested in reading our piece on what Arista's cash pile and lack of debt are worth.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of ANET as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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