Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 1.8% - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares fell 1.8% on Wednesday, trading as low as $159.20 before closing at $166.78, with volume slightly above average.
• Recent analyst commentary remains broadly positive, with several firms raising or reaffirming Buy ratings and an average price target of $187.63, above the current share price.
• The company reported strong quarterly results, including $0.87 EPS versus $0.81 expected and 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth, while insiders have also been selling shares through pre-arranged trading plans.

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) fell 1.8% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $159.20 and last traded at $166.7760. Approximately 9,054,748 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 3% from the average daily volume of 8,757,854 shares. The stock had previously closed at $169.88.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $190.00 price target (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, June 12th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Arista Networks to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $187.63.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.8%

The stock's 50 day moving average price is $159.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $143.32. The stock has a market cap of $210.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The firm'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, analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares in the company, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. This represents a 0.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,639,080 shares of company stock valued at $430,322,162. Insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,396,939,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332,659 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $525,741,000 after purchasing an additional 3,890,146 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 59.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,032,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,934,098 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 86.0% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company's stock worth $520,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,960,829 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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