Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Upgraded to Outperform at BNP Paribas Exane

Key Points

• Arista Networks has been upgraded from "neutral" to "outperform" by BNP Paribas Exane, with a new price target of $172.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.68% from its current price.
• The company recently reported $2.20 billion in revenue for the quarter, exceeding expectations, and its earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.73, beating the consensus estimate by $0.08.
• Insiders have recently sold a significant amount of stock, with CEO Jayshree Ullal selling over 1.24 million shares valued at approximately $185 million, indicating potential shifts in management confidence.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at BNP Paribas Exane from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Finviz reports. The brokerage presently has a $172.00 price objective on the technology company's stock. BNP Paribas Exane's target price indicates a potential upside of 20.68% from the company's current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $89.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $162.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock opened at $142.52 on Thursday. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $156.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $133.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $103.29. The company has a market cap of $179.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.06, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.50.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a net margin of 40.90% and a return on equity of 31.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,247,688 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.53, for a total value of $185,319,098.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,383,207 shares in the company, valued at $799,567,735.71. The trade was a 18.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 58,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.42, for a total transaction of $8,608,360.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,522,832 shares of company stock worth $980,078,779 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $933,626,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,228,177,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 153.8% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,719,809 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $584,119,000 after purchasing an additional 4,678,372 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Arista Networks by 193.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,065,054 shares of the technology company's stock worth $721,342,000 after acquiring an additional 4,656,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 37.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,552,484 shares of the technology company's stock worth $740,126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,594,184 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.