This fund manager loves Arista Networks

Castlemoore president and chief portfolio manager Hap Sneddon highlighted Arista Networks (Arista Networks Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials NYSE:ANET) as a core quality holding on BNN Bloomberg’s Market Call on Dec. 9, citing its leadership in high-performance networking for AI and cloud data-centre environments.

Sneddon described Arista as “a high, high-quality name in the artificial intelligence and cloud space,” noting its position as a top producer in data-centre switching, campus networking and routing.

“They’ve got a really, really wide moat,” he said. “You’ve got to have a lot of money, talent and skill to get into this space, and they’re one of the best at what they do.”

Arista’s flagship platforms, its Extensible Operating System (EOS) and CloudVision, enable low-latency, high-throughput connections for modern distributed compute environments. Sneddon said the company offers “very versatile solutions” and maintains “excellent profit,” reinforcing its competitive durability as AI workloads scale.

Castlemoore has held the stock for roughly two years. Sneddon acknowledged the volatility that comes with market leadership, comparing it to swings seen in names like Nvidia or Taiwan Semiconductor.

“Anybody that’s a real big shooter in the space … you have to expect periods of heavy volatility,” he said. “But when you look at the quality, this is a really, really quality name. Do I have the right weighting? Yeah, you should have the right weighting.”

Arista shares have gained 19.48% over the past 12 months. Of the analysts covering the stock, 22 rate it “Buy,” six “Hold,” and none “Sell,” with a consensus target of US$163.63.

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