Arista Networks today reported solid earnings for its third quarter 2016 after the markets closed.
Its revenue of $290.3 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016, represented an increase of 8 percent sequentially, and an increase of 33.4 percent from the third quarter of 2015.
Arista reported non-GAAP net income of $61.2 million, or $0.83 per share, compared to net income of $42.4 million, or $0.59 per share, in the third quarter of 2015. And its non-GAAP gross margin of 64.6 percent compared to 65.5 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
The majority of questions during the company’s earnings call pertained to supply constraints on the components used to make its products. The company is transitioning from overseas suppliers to its own manufacturing facility, in part due to its ongoing litigation with Cisco.
“Customers do express concern on our longer lead times,” said Arista President and CEO Jayshree Ullal. “They wish they were shorter and that we could go back to our predicable on-time shipments.”
She said lead times in the second quarter of 2016 were in the four-to-eight-week range, and that has now increased by about 20 percent. In addition to supply shortages, the company also under-forecast increased demand for its products.
Ullal said she does expect these shortages to decrease in the first quarter of 2017, but added, “This will be a multi-quarter process.”
The company didn’t have any update on its application for customs approval for design-arounds related to the Cisco litigation.
In terms of the manufacturing transition and the customs approval, Ullal stressed: “We are completely committed to and are following the law.”
For its financial guidance for the fourth quarter of 2016, Arista expects revenue between $310 million and $320 million and non-GAAP gross margin between 61 percent to 64 percent. The guidance for non-GAAP financial measures excludes legal expenses of about $12 million associated with litigation.
During the third quarter, Arista announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE). That agreement will be officially signed on November 7. HPE customers and partners will have the ability to purchase Arista switching products directly from HPE. “We’ll supply networking components, and they will supply compute and storage,” said Ullal.