What happened
Shares of Arista Networks (ANET 1.43%) climbed 32.8% in February, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the networking products company announced strong fourth-quarter 2018 results.
Arista stock popped nearly 10% on Feb. 15, 2019, alone, the first trading day after its report hit the wires, then continued to drift higher from there.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
So what
More specifically, Arista's quarterly revenue climbed 27% year over year, to $595.7 million -- well above guidance provided in November for between $582 million and $594 million -- which translated to a 33% increase in adjusted net income to $182.2 million, or $2.25 per share.
Arista CEO Jayshree Ullal credited "continued momentum across cloud titan and enterprise verticals," which helped to secure the company's central position as a growing number of customers deploy cloud-networking solutions.
Check out the latest earnings call transcript for Arista.
Now what
What's more, Arista told investors to expect revenue in the current first quarter of 2019 to be between $588 million and $598 million, up more than 25% year over year at the midpoint. Analysts, on average, were modeling first-quarter revenue near the low end of that range.
In the end, this straightforward quarterly beat followed by better-than-expected forward guidance left the market little choice but to bid up Arista Networks' stock in response.
