Arista Networks Inc. shares searched for direction in the extended session Monday after the cloud-software and data-center supplier’s earnings and outlook topped the relatively low Wall Street consensus.
Arista
ANET,
shares shifted between slight gains and losses after hours, and were last down 1.6%, following a 0.5% decline in the regular session to close at $120.86. The company’s share price is down 16% year to date, versus 19% decline by the S&P 500 index
SPX,
and a 30% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
over that period.
The company reported third-quarter net income of $354 million, or $1.13 a share, compared with $224.3 million, or 70 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock-based compensation expenses and other items, were $1.25 a share, compared with 74 cents a share in the year-ago period. Per-share amounts account for last year’s four-to-one stock split announced back in November.
Revenue rose to $1.06 billion from $748.7 million in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.04 a share on revenue of $856.1 million, based on Arista’s forecast of $1.03 billion to $1.08 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Arista forecast revenue between $1.18 billion and $1.2 billion, while analysts forecast revenue of $1.09 billion.
