Allen Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Allen Investment Management sharply reduced its Arista Networks stake by 81.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 280,270 shares and leaving it with 63,838 shares worth about $8.37 million.
• Arista Networks reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 beating estimates and revenue of $2.71 billion, up 35.1% year over year. The company also guided Q2 2026 EPS at $0.88.
• Despite insider selling, Wall Street remains bullish on ANET: analysts currently have a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $185.72, with shares recently trading up 7.2% at $170.91.

Allen Investment Management LLC cut its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 81.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,838 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 280,270 shares during the quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $8,365,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,188,799 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,342,551 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,752,573,000 after purchasing an additional 245,976 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,455,095,000 after purchasing an additional 477,625 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,558,563,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,094,255 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,470,834,000 after buying an additional 181,813 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $4,292,480.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. This represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This represents a 7.59% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,935,142 shares of company stock valued at $313,589,223. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Up 7.2%

Shares of ANET opened at $170.91 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day moving average is $148.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.86. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $85.58 and a twelve month high of $179.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.20 billion, a PE ratio of 58.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.67.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $185.72.

Arista Networks 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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