diff --git a/salt/client/ssh/__init__.py b/salt/client/ssh/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/salt/client/ssh/__init__.py
+++ b/salt/client/ssh/__init__.py
@@ -350,7 +350,9 @@ class SSH(object):
             return
 
         hostname = self.opts['tgt'].split('@')[-1]
-        needs_expansion = '*' not in hostname and salt.utils.network.is_reachable_host(hostname)
+        needs_expansion = '*' not in hostname and \
+                          salt.utils.network.is_reachable_host(hostname) and \
+                          salt.utils.network.is_ip(hostname)
         if needs_expansion:
             hostname = salt.utils.network.ip_to_host(hostname)
             if hostname is None:
only do reverse dns lookup on ips for salt-ssh

Fixes #<I>