ANET Earnings Day: Analysts and Options Align Bullish

Arista Networks reports after the close today. The data going in tells one clear story: bulls are in control.

Analysts Have Been Raising Targets for Weeks

Six firms raised price targets on ANET in July alone. Needham lifted its target to $200 on July 22. Wells Fargo matched that move on July 16. TD Cowen went furthest — pushing to $210 on July 13. The consensus mean sits at $192.31, above Friday's close of $184.89. Not one firm downgraded the stock during this stretch.

The bull case centers on AI-driven data center buildouts and Arista's high-speed Ethernet positioning with hyperscalers. Bears flag customer concentration and gross margin pressure as the key risks into today's print.

Options Market Hits Its Most Call-Heavy Reading in Weeks

The put/call ratio fell to 0.79 on August 3. That is 2.4 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 0.88. It is the lowest PCR reading since late July and sits near the lower end of the 52-week range of 0.62–1.05. Traders are tilting decisively toward calls over puts ahead of this print.

This extends a trend. The two previous earnings-preview articles noted a persistent call-heavy lean — but the August 3 reading sharpened it further. The positioning is consistent, not a sudden flip.

Short Sellers Have Already Voted

Short interest is at 1.35% of the free float — down 13.5% over the past week and down 24% over the past month. Bears have been covering since mid-July. At this level, short interest carries no meaningful squeeze risk and adds no pressure either way.

Borrow availability sits at roughly 9,937% — an extraordinarily loose lending market. Over 736 million shares are available to borrow. Cost to borrow edged up 76% on the week to 0.46%, but that remains trivially cheap in absolute terms. The lending market is not signaling stress.

What to Watch

The stock has moved more than 8% on each of the past two post-earnings sessions. Today's print — with short sellers already out, analysts uniformly constructive, and options skewed to calls — will test whether that aligned positioning is justified.

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• Price: $184.89, up 2.5% on August 3; up 8.3% on the week
• SI % FF: 1.35%, down ~24% over one month
• Put/call ratio: 0.79 (z-score: −2.4 vs 20-day mean)
• Borrow availability: ~9,937% — extremely loose
• Cost to borrow: 0.46%, up 76% on the week but historically low
• Analyst mean target: $192.31; TD Cowen high at $210
• Earnings: After close, August 4, 2026