Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 4.5% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares rose 4.5% on Friday, trading as high as $165.25 after closing at $156.40 the prior day. Volume was lighter than usual, with about 6.0 million shares traded versus an average of 8.8 million.
• Analysts remain bullish on the stock, with several firms raising price targets and maintaining buy-equivalent ratings. The current consensus rating is “Buy”, with a consensus price target of $186.47.
• Arista also posted strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates with 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth. However, recent insider selling has been significant, including sales by CEO Jayshree Ullal and major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 4.5% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $165.25 and last traded at $163.3780. 6,023,433 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the average session volume of 8,764,698 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.40.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $181.00 price target (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $186.47.

Arista Networks Trading Up 4.5%

The company's fifty day moving average is $153.66 and its 200-day moving average is $139.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 EPS 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 the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.04, for a total value of $2,140,947.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,537,531.68. This trade represents a 58.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.93, for a total value of $34,744,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,664,154.64. This represents a 66.30% 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. Insiders have sold 2,403,142 shares of company stock worth $388,820,943 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 321.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 48.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 3,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in Arista Networks by 31.3% in the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 4,193 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $429,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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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