Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 5% - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares rose 5% on Thursday, trading as high as $147.89 on volume that was about 66% above the average daily level.
• Wall Street remains bullish on ANET: several firms reiterated buy/overweight ratings, and the consensus target price is $182.83, above the current share price.
• Strong earnings supported the move, with Arista beating quarterly EPS and revenue estimates and posting 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth; the company also guided Q2 EPS at $0.88.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 5% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $147.89 and last traded at $147.7620. Approximately 14,415,477 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 66% from the average daily volume of 8,703,971 shares. The stock had previously closed at $140.69.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $188.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Susquehanna upgraded shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, May 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $182.83.

Arista Networks Trading Up 5.0%

The stock's fifty day moving average price is $143.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $137.66. The firm has a market cap of $186.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.67.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The business's revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.31, for a total transaction of $5,225,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $2,119,110.56. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 8,890 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.02, for a total transaction of $1,378,127.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 60,734 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,414,984.68. This represents a 12.77% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Global Trust Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 33.0% during the 3rd quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 19,273 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,808,000 after acquiring an additional 4,780 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $8,263,000. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $1,549,000. National Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $1,296,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company's stock worth $22,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,217 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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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