Jan. 22 at 8:49 PM
Arista Networks surged Thursday to become the S&P 500’s top-performing stock, though no clear catalyst for the move immediately emerged. Shares of the networking company, which provides solutions for artificial-intelligence data centers, jumped about 9% during the session.
Analysts said the rally reflects growing buy-side interest rather than a single news event. According to Needham’s Ryan Koontz, investors have increasingly focused on Arista’s strong exposure to AI backend networking, an area seen as growing faster than overall AI spending due to power grid constraints and rising demand for scalable infrastructure.
The stock has also become more volatile in recent months. Arista’s beta has climbed to 1.99 over the past 90 days, up from 1.74 over the past year and 1.55 over the past five years, indicating shares are moving at roughly twice the volatility of the broader market.
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