Aberdeen Group plc Raises Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group plc has increased its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. by 129.3%, owning a total of 946,775 shares valued at approximately $72.55 million after acquiring an additional 533,927 shares in the first quarter.
• Arista Networks reported a Q2 earnings per share of $0.73, exceeding analyst estimates of $0.65, and its revenue reached $2.20 billion, up 30.4% year-over-year.
• As part of a strategic move, Arista Networks' board has authorized a $1.50 billion share buyback program, indicating confidence in the company's stock value.

Aberdeen Group plc raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 129.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 946,775 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 533,927 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc owned about 0.08% of Arista Networks worth $72,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. DSG Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $5,984,000. Ibex Wealth Advisors increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 58,093 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,501,000 after purchasing an additional 7,329 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $629,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 19.8% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 613,309 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $47,519,000 after purchasing an additional 101,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at $15,227,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ANET shares. KGI Securities lowered Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $106.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Evercore ISI set a $150.00 target price on Arista Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.07.

Arista Networks Trading Down 4.1%

Arista Networks stock traded down $5.60 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $132.44. The company had a trading volume of 6,857,473 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,535,771. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $110.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.15. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $59.43 and a 12 month high of $141.99. The company has a market capitalization of $166.46 billion, a PE ratio of 52.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.37.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 40.90%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. 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 anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.22, for a total transaction of $243,175,176.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,698,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at $776,191,640.28. This represents a 23.86% 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. Insiders sold 5,767,742 shares of company stock worth $714,048,068 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.