Arista Networks, Inc.

ANETdata completeness 88%14 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Arista Networks, Inc. earns about 34% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 300% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $16.96 and $173.41 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$2.95B1$4.38B2$5.86B3$7B3$9.01B3
Net income$840.9M4$1.35B5$2.09B6$2.85B6$3.51B6
Operating cash flow$1.02B7$492.8M8$2.03B9$3.71B9$4.37B9
Capital expenditure$64.7M10$44.6M11$34.4M12$32M12$119.5M12
Free cash flow (derived)$951.1M7$448.2M8$2B9$3.68B9$4.25B9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$620.8M13$671.7M14$1.94B15$2.76B16$1.96B16
Diluted shares319.2M1.27B1.27B1.28B1.28B

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$96.97
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$27.53
Free cash flow it threw off
$33.33
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $96.97 of net worth that earned you $27.53 and generated $33.33 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
34% avg · 5y
FY21 25%FY22 32%FY23 40%FY24 39%FY25 34%

It earned about 34% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+300% shares · 5y

Share count is up 300% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $16.96 and $173.41 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$173.41
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$3.68B
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$95.49
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$3.68B
Earnings Power Value
$16.96
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$2.09B
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$24.49
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $95.49
The three cases
Bear0.0%$42.71
Base20.0%$95.49
Bull20.0%$95.49

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001596532-24-000043 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001596532-25-000028 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001596532-26-000013 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001596532-24-000043 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001596532-25-000028 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001596532-26-000013 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001596532-24-000043 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001596532-25-000028 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001596532-26-000013 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001596532-24-000043 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001596532-25-000028 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001596532-26-000013 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001596532-23-000016 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001596532-24-000043 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001596532-25-000028 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001596532-26-000013 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)