Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 7.2% Higher - Here's Why

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares rose 7.2% after trading above recent levels, with volume running slightly ahead of average mid-day activity.
• Several analysts remain bullish: JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS, and Morgan Stanley all reiterated positive ratings and raised or maintained higher price targets, with a consensus target of $185.72.
• The company reported a strong quarter, beating EPS and revenue estimates with $0.87 EPS and $2.71 billion in revenue, both up sharply year over year; however, insiders have also been selling shares recently.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s share price was up 7.2% on Monday . The company traded as high as $172.33 and last traded at $170.9050. Approximately 9,732,846 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 10% from the average daily volume of 8,866,778 shares. The stock had previously closed at $159.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $185.72.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $215.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.53, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.61. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $147.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.61.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were 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 directly owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,935,142 shares of company stock worth $313,589,223. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after buying an additional 1,188,799 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,154,570,000 after acquiring an additional 628,146 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,870,618,000 after acquiring an additional 380,724 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after acquiring an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,558,563,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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