ANET vs MSFT: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Arista Networks, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation β fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-09-24.
Arista Networks, Inc. Β· Technology
$203.47
+15.4% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade C
High Quality
VS
Microsoft Corporation Β· Technology
$497.12
+41.3% upside to fair value
High Conviction
Grade A
High Quality
QuantHub Verdict
MSFT has more upside to fair value
(+41.3%).
These are model outputs β not personalized investment advice.
See all research β
Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
ANET |
MSFT |
| Current Price |
$203.47 |
$497.12 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$234.80 |
$702.35 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+15.4%
|
+41.3%
|
| Market Cap |
$256.2B |
$3,691.4B |
| Forward P/E |
β
|
β
|
| EV / EBITDA |
49.7x
|
18.3x
|
| Price / Sales |
24.3x
|
11.1x
|
| Price / FCF |
49.7x
|
55.1x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+37.7%
|
+17.7%
|
| Gross Margin |
63.0%
|
67.9%
|
| Operating Margin |
43.1%
|
46.8%
|
| Return on Equity |
30.8%
|
33.2%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0% |
0.73% |
| FCF Yield |
2.01%
|
1.81%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Strong Buy
|
Strong 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 ROEβ¦
Microsoft is a global infrastructure-software platform spanning Azure, Microsoft 365, security, Dynamics, Windows, GitHub and AI copilots, with high business quality supported by enterprise distribution, explicitly cited switching costs, a $678 billion commercial RPO balance, 67.9% TTM gross margin, 46.8% TTM operating margin, 40.3% TTM net margin and 33.2% ROE. Revenue grew 17.7% and earnings grβ¦
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
ANET |
MSFT |
| Zone Low |
$176.10 |
$526.76 |
| Zone High |
$199.58 |
$597.00 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
Yes
|