Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 3.7% - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares fell 3.7% on Monday, trading as low as $135.13 amid heavy volume that was more than double its average daily level.
• The company’s latest quarterly results were solid, with EPS of $0.87 beating estimates and revenue of $2.71 billion topping expectations; revenue also rose 35.1% year over year.
• Despite the pullback, Wall Street remains broadly positive: analysts still rate ANET a Buy on average with a consensus price target of $182.83, even as some insider selling and a rating downgrade from Weiss added caution.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) shares were down 3.7% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $135.13 and last traded at $136.5120. Approximately 17,878,842 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 110% from the average daily volume of 8,525,166 shares. The stock had previously closed at $141.77.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Weiss Ratings cut Arista Networks from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $187.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $182.83.

Arista Networks Trading Down 3.7%

The firm has a market cap of $171.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.67. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $143.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.87.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $4,292,480.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,740,600.64. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,502,729 shares of company stock valued at $246,707,719 in the last quarter. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Arista Networks by 2,829.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company's stock worth $833,630,000 after acquiring an additional 5,525,828 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Arista Networks by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,396,939,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332,659 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Arista Networks by 3,182.7% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock worth $525,741,000 after acquiring an additional 3,890,146 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,032,302,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934,098 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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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