Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 2.3% - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares fell 2.3% to about $198.91 in mid-day trading, while volume was 45% below the average session level.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with an average “Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $226.05; several firms recently raised their targets, including Rosenblatt to $280.
• The company reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $1.02 and revenue of $3.04 billion—beating estimates and representing 37.7% year-over-year revenue growth. However, insiders sold approximately $687.4 million of stock over the past three months, including substantial sales by the CEO and a major shareholder.

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) were down 2.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $198.25 and last traded at $198.9080. Approximately 4,699,543 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 8,615,587 shares. The stock had previously closed at $203.62.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $210.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up from $181.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial raised Arista Networks from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $164.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $220.00 price target (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Arista Networks to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $226.05.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $250.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $173.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $154.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.65% and a net margin of 38.37%.The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total transaction of $60,990,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 181,143,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. This represents a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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 767,029 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total transaction of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 16,387,981 shares in the company, valued at $3,297,589,536.82. This represents a 4.47% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 3,819,659 shares of company stock valued at $687,397,841 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Place Capital Corp raised its stake in Arista Networks by 493.5% during the 2nd quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 9,716 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,651,000 after acquiring an additional 8,079 shares during the period. Fiduciary Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $550,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 475.6% in the 2nd quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 236 shares of the technology company's stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. L2 Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 6.0% during the second quarter. L2 Asset Management LLC now owns 5,976 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,015,000 after buying an additional 339 shares during the period. Finally, Asset One Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Asset One Wealth Management LLC now owns 36,219 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,734 shares during the last quarter. 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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