Wall Street Says This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Is a Bargain Hiding in Plain Sight

By Manali Pradhan, CFA – Feb 18, 2026 at 12:00AM ESTKey PointsArista Networks expects significant improvement in artificial intelligence (AI) networking revenues in 2026.The company expects campus and branch networking to be another significant growth engine.Arista also boasts impressive margins.These 10 Stocks Could Mint the Next Wave of Millionaires ›NYSE: ANETArista NetworksMarket Cap$180BToday's Changeangle-down(0.72%) $1.02Current Price$142.61Price as of February 17, 2026 at 3:58 PM ETThis company offers an impressive blend of revenue visibility, profitable growth, and financial flexibility.Arista Networks (ANET +0.72%) may not be the most sought-after artificial intelligence (AI) stock.

But Wall Street's consensus numbers suggest it may be one of the clearest AI bargains hiding in plain sight. Analysts have set a 12-month consensus target price of $175, implying an upside potential of nearly 23.6% from the last closing price as of Feb. 13. Image source: Getty Images. That optimism stems from Arista's critical role as a provider of high-performance Ethernet networking infrastructure that connects the servers and AI accelerators inside modern AI and cloud data centers. Impressive revenue visibility Arista's Ethernet-based AI networking solutions are transitioning from experimentation and pilot phases to production-level deployments. As AI data centers scale and models become more complex, the bottleneck shifts from just computing power to networking for efficiently moving data between GPUs. Subsequently, the company now expects its AI networking revenues to almost double year over year to $3.25 billion in 2026. ExpandNYSE: ANETArista NetworksToday's Change(0.72%) $1.02Current Price$142.61Key Data PointsMarket Cap$180BDay's Range$140.00 - $144.8652wk Range$59.43 - $164.94Volume438KAvg Vol8MGross Margin64.06% The growth momentum is expected to continue as several large customers are already operating AI deployments at massive GPU scale using Ethernet-based networking architectures, while additional customers are ramping up their AI infrastructure. However, in large AI data centers, networking investments typically lag the initial GPU and accelerator (AI chip) deployments. Hence, many of these customers may still require incremental networking infrastructure from Arista even after the compute infrastructure is in place. Beyond AI, Arista is also expanding into campus, branch, and routing markets. The company expects $1.25 billion in campus and branch revenues in 2026. Campus and networking now account for 18% of the company's total revenues. Management now estimates Arista's total addressable market to be over $100 billion. Arista seems to already be benefiting from these trends, as evidenced by its updated 25% year-over-year revenue growth guidance for 2026, up from the prior estimate of 20%. Profitable growth Arista's AI networking growth has not come at the expense of profits. The company is operating at gross margins in the low-to-mid-60% range and expects operating margins of 46% in 2026. Arista has maintained impressive margins, despite rising supply chain costs associated with the additional memory needed to support high-speed networking switches in AI networks and increased fabrication costs for advanced networking chips. Beyond hardware, Arista's software and subscriptions business is also strengthening its competitive moat. The company's network software and services business, anchored by its EOS operating system and CloudVision platform, enables customers to automate network operations and gain deep visibility into complex traffic patterns, including those created by large-scale AI workloads. These software capabilities are tightly integrated into customer networks, helping build a sticky customer base for Arista. Arista has served over 10,000 cumulative customers to date, while CloudVision has been deployed across roughly 3,000 customers over the past decade. Software is a high-margin revenue stream, thereby improving the revenue mix. Arista also exited fiscal 2025 with a cash balance of $10.7 billion and negligible debt. This balance sheet strength gives the company sufficient financial flexibility to invest in future growth initiatives. Hence, given the evidence, Arista Networks seems well positioned to pleasantly surprise investors in the coming years.Read NextFeb 13, 2026 •By Keith NoonanWhy Arista Networks Stock Is Soaring TodayFeb 7, 2026 •By Manali Pradhan, CFAThe Hidden Gem AI Networking Stock That Could Own the Next 5 YearsJan 22, 2026 •By Jeremy BowmanWhy Arista Networks Stock Popped TodayDec 4, 2025 •By Thomas NielPrediction: This AI Infrastructure Stock Could Hit a $500 Billion Valuation by 2032Nov 29, 2025 •By Rick OrfordArista Networks Stock Has Soared, but Is the AI Networking Thesis Still Valid?Nov 25, 2025 •By Manali Pradhan, CFAThis AI Stock Hasn't Caught Up to Its Fundamentals Yet. Is the Market Sleeping on It?About the AuthorManali Pradhan, CFA, is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and industrial sectors. Manali brings prior experience as a healthcare analyst and team lead at Market Realist, a data equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, and a data analyst at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a master’s in finance from Mumbai University.TMFManaBStocks MentionedArista NetworksNYSE: ANET$142.61 (+0.72%) $+1.02*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.