Cisco Systems Inc. / Arista Networks, Inc.: Tim's 2 Things for 2 Stocks in 2H

Research evidence excerpt

Cisco Systems Inc. / Arista Networks, Inc.: Tim's 2 Things for 2 Stocks in 2H

Equity Research

21 May 2026

Cisco Systems Inc. / Arista Networks, Inc.

Tim's 2 Things for 2 Stocks in 2H

We continue our new report series discussing the two most

important topics for stocks that generally get looked at

together by investors. For CSCO/ANET, we are looking at their ANET OVERWEIGHT IT Hardware and

positions in AI (and the broader Cloud and data center) and in CommunicationsEquipment NEUTRAL

the campus networking space. Price Target USD 195.00

Price (20-May-26) USD 140.49

Potential Upside/Downside +38.8%

We continue our new report series discussing the two most important topics for stocks that Source: Bloomberg, Barclays Research

generally get looked at together by investors. In this report we focus on networking and CSCO/

ANET, looking mostly at their positions in AI (and the broader Cloud and data center) and in the CSCO EQUAL WEIGHT

campus networking segment. We prefer OW rated ANET given its leadership position in AI and IT Hardware and

market share gains in campus, and are relatively more cautious on EW rated CSCO, despite a lot Communications NEUTRAL

Equipment

of success in optics. Price Target USD 121.00

Price (20-May-26) USD 114.35

Overall conclusion: Our analysis shows a stronger outlook for ANET as we look into 2H26 and

Potential Upside/Downside +5.8%

2027. We see clear share gains for ANET off a low base in campus, and continued leadership in Source: Bloomberg, Barclays Research

cloud/AI. Our analysis shows that CSCO is trading at an implied AI multiple 2x+ that of ANET,

which we view as a mispricing given ANET's stronger positions.

IT Hardware and Communications

• Thing 1 (Cloud/AI): ANET has greater cloud/AI revenue exposure (72%) than CSCO (13%) and Equipment