Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 6.8% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares fell 6.8% on Tuesday, trading as low as $159.36 after closing at $174.56 the prior day, with volume running below average.
• Despite the pullback, Wall Street remains bullish on ANET: analysts’ average rating is “Buy,” and the consensus price target is $187.63, with several firms recently raising their targets.
• The company’s latest earnings were better than expected, with Q1 EPS of $0.87 versus $0.81 expected and revenue of $2.71 billion versus $2.62 billion estimated, while insider selling and high institutional ownership also stood out in the report.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) shares traded down 6.8% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $159.36 and last traded at $162.61. 7,585,889 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 8,741,341 shares. The stock had previously closed at $174.56.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the topic of a number of research reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 price target (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Arista Networks from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $164.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $187.63.

Arista Networks Trading Down 6.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $204.76 billion, a PE ratio of 55.69, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $141.87.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. This represents a 0.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $924,321,690.08. This represents a 7.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 2,603,747 shares of company stock worth $423,901,619 over the last quarter. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter worth $176,000. First National Bank of Mount Dora Trust Investment Services purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter valued at about $5,279,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its position in Arista Networks by 31.5% in the first quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,031 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,232,000 after buying an additional 2,404 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 20.1% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 124,424 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $15,277,000 after buying an additional 20,797 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Nebraska Trust Co purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the first quarter worth about $1,807,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc is a technology company that designs and sells cloud networking solutions for large-scale data centers and enterprise environments. The company is best known for its high-performance switching and routing platforms, which are used to build scalable, low-latency networks for cloud service providers, internet companies, financial services, telecommunications, and enterprise IT. Arista's offerings emphasize programmability, automation and telemetry to support modern, software-driven network architectures.

Central to Arista's product portfolio is its Extensible Operating System (EOS), a modular network operating system that provides consistent programmability, stateful control and advanced visibility across the company's hardware platforms.

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