ANET vs MCD: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Arista Networks, Inc. and McDonald's Corporation — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-09-24.
Arista Networks, Inc. · Technology
$203.47
+15.4% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade C
High Quality
VS
McDonald's Corporation · Consumer Cyclical
$252.78
+40.7% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade A
High Quality
QuantHub Verdict
MCD has more upside to fair value
(+40.7%).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
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Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
ANET |
MCD |
| Current Price |
$203.47 |
$252.78 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$234.80 |
$355.71 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+15.4%
|
+40.7%
|
| Market Cap |
$256.2B |
$179.6B |
| Forward P/E |
—
|
—
|
| EV / EBITDA |
49.7x
|
15.5x
|
| Price / Sales |
24.3x
|
6.5x
|
| Price / FCF |
49.7x
|
23.1x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+37.7%
|
+3.8%
|
| Gross Margin |
63.0%
|
57.4%
|
| Operating Margin |
43.1%
|
45.8%
|
| Return on Equity |
30.8%
|
-561.2%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0% |
2.94% |
| FCF Yield |
2.01%
|
4.32%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Strong Buy
|
Buy
|
Investment Thesis
Arista Networks designs and sells high-performance Ethernet switching and routing hardware plus its extensible EOS network operating system, and it sits directly in the path of the AI data-center build-out where networking, not compute, is increasingly the bottleneck. The business quality is genuinely high: TTM gross margin of 63.0%, TTM operating margin of 43.1%, TTM net margin of 38.4%, and ROE…
McDonald's operates a globally scaled, approximately 95% franchised restaurant system with 46,028 restaurants in more than 100 countries, combining a powerful consumer brand, real-estate-backed franchise economics, supplier scale and digital loyalty reach. Business quality is high despite meaningful leverage: TTM gross, operating and net margins are 57.4%, 45.8% and 31.7%, respectively, while loy…
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
ANET |
MCD |
| Zone Low |
$176.10 |
$266.78 |
| Zone High |
$199.58 |
$302.35 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
Yes
|