Arista Networks rises as Barclays upgrades, citing strong demand; Cisco downgraded
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Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) rose on Wednesday while Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) fell, as investment firm Barclays upgraded the former and downgraded the latter.
Analyst Tim Long moved his rating on Arista Networks (ANET) to overweight from equal weight and lowered his rating on Cisco (CSCO) to equal weight from overweight, noting Arista is benefiting from strong demand, making it more likely to see "sustainable" mid-teens growth for a few years. The company has also successfully diversified its customer base and its routing portfolio continues to improve, while its campus growth has been called "impressive."
"For [Arista Networks], we are turning more constructive with resilient cloud demand and campus upside with [total addressable market] expansion," Long wrote in a note to clients.
Conversely, Cisco (CSCO) is likely being hampered by competition and macroeconomic headwinds. 
Long added that Barclays is "less optimistic" on Cisco's (CSCO) cloud and software prospects, noting its move to a software-based model has been "sluggish," as its competition is growing faster even with a similar backlog profile. It also is more exposed to the global economy and concerns over a slowdown in enterprise spending.
Arista (ANET) shares rose 2% to $116.37 in premarket trading, while Cisco (CSCO) fell 1.5% to $41.89.
Late last month, Deutsche Bank started coverage on Arista Networks (ANET) with a hold rating, but said the networking technology company stands to expand its market share in the data center market.
Analysts are largely cautious on Arista Networks (ANET). It has a BUY rating from Seeking Alpha authors, while Wall Street analysts rate it a BUY. Conversely, Seeking Alpha's quant system, which consistently beats the market, rates ANET a STRONG BUY.