Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Acquired by Bailard Inc.

Key Points

• Bailard Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 21.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 7,425 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 41,920 shares worth about $5.49 million.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive on Arista Networks, with a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $182.83. Several firms recently raised targets, and Susquehanna upgraded the stock to strong-buy.
• Arista reported strong quarterly results, including EPS of $0.87 versus $0.81 expected and revenue of $2.71 billion, up 35.1% year over year. However, CEO Jayshree Ullal and another insider also sold shares recently, and insiders sold more than 1.5 million shares over the past 90 days.

Bailard Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 21.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,920 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,425 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $5,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,133,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company's stock worth $827,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 8,364 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the technology company's stock worth $318,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna upgraded Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $182.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET stock opened at $142.60 on Wednesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.86 and a 1 year high of $179.80. The stock has a market cap of $179.56 billion, a PE ratio of 48.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.67. The business's fifty day moving average is $143.74 and its 200-day moving average is $137.75.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The company had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. The firm'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. Equities research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of Arista Networks 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 $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

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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