ANET vs WDC Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Compare Arista's high-margin AI data center switching business against Western Digital's more cyclical hard drive and flash storage manufacturing.
Use this Arista Networks vs Western Digital comparison to evaluate the key differences across valuation, growth, profitability, and risk before making an investment decision.
WDC holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. WDC leads on both 1-year return (+443.56%) and forward P/E quality (14.47x vs 37.87x for ANET), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, WDC is growing revenue faster (43.80%), while ANET maintains the higher operating margin (45.39%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for WDC (+44.72%) than for ANET (+23.77%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
| Metric | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 75.0 | 71.7 |
| AI ranki | #20 | #31 |
| Latest closei | $193.78 | $467.46 |
| 1M returni | -1.79% | -9.96% |
| 6M returni | +39.01% | +80.47% |
| 1Y returni | +41.05% | +443.56% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $13.73K (+37.3%) started 2025-09-04 | $51.66K (+416.6%) started 2025-09-04 |
| 5Y ago | $86.25K (+762.5%) started 2021-09-07 | $102.39K (+923.9%) started 2021-09-07 |
| 10Y ago | $381.88K (+3718.8%) started 2016-09-06 | $139.1K (+1291.0%) started 2016-09-06 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $246.42B | $165.65B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 61.63 | 17.07 |
| Forward P/Ei | 37.87 | 14.47 |
| Price/Salesi | 16.42 | 1.24 |
| EV/Revenuei | 22.11 | 12.79 |
| Analyst targeti | $241.82 | $664.92 |
| Target upsidei | +23.77% | +44.72% |
| Metric | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 37.70% | 43.80% |
| Earnings growthi | 35.70% | 984.10% |
| EPS growthi | +35.70% | +984.10% |
| FCF margini | +36.92% | +17.56% |
| Operating margini | 45.39% | 43.61% |
| Profit margini | 38.37% | 72.95% |
| ROIC proxyi | 31.48% | 130.85% |
| Return on equityi | 31.48% | 130.85% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 0.13% |
| Betai | 1.61 | 2.22 |
| Debt/equityi | 0.73 | 13.44 |
| Current ratioi | 2.96 | 1.33 |
| Quick ratioi | 2.29 | 0.85 |
Over the past year, ANET and WDC have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.44), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +37.27% | +416.59% |
| CAGRi | +37.33% | +417.80% | |
| Volatilityi | 54.65% | 79.80% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.77 | 2.40 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.11 | 3.86 | |
| Max drawdowni | 28.33% | 41.80% | |
| Current drawdowni | 7.94% | 37.36% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 11.66% | 10.09% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 13.92% | 15.84% | |
| Max daily dropi | 13.61% | 13.17% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.97% | 21.41% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +762.54% | +923.92% |
| CAGRi | +53.97% | +59.36% | |
| Volatilityi | 48.68% | 52.74% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 1.04 | 1.06 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.56 | 1.64 | |
| Max drawdowni | 50.42% | 55.32% | |
| Current drawdowni | 7.94% | 37.36% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 11.55% | 21.24% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 15.67% | 26.67% | |
| Max daily dropi | 22.35% | 18.26% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.97% | 24.82% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +3718.80% | +1244.98% |
| CAGRi | +43.97% | +29.70% | |
| Volatilityi | 45.51% | 50.35% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.93 | 0.68 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.36 | 0.99 | |
| Max drawdowni | 52.20% | 72.21% | |
| Current drawdowni | 7.94% | 37.36% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 13.47% | 36.99% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 18.29% | 42.90% | |
| Max daily dropi | 24.23% | 20.44% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.17% | 35.33% |
| Category | ANET | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ANET | WDC |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Computer Hardware | Computer Hardware |
| Core business | Arista Networks, Inc. engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for AI, data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East,… | Western Digital Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of data storage devices and solutions based on hard disk drive (HDD) technology in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Afri… |
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