Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by Broadleaf Partners LLC

Key Points

• Broadleaf Partners LLC reduced its stake in Arista Networks by 19.9%, now owning 100,683 shares worth approximately $7.8 million.
• Several institutional investors increased their holdings in Arista Networks significantly, including a 600.2% increase by Quantitative Investment Management LLC.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Arista Networks, with Goldman Sachs setting a new target of $155.00, while the average target price now stands at $138.07.

Broadleaf Partners LLC lessened its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 19.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 100,683 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 25,040 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks accounts for 2.0% of Broadleaf Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Broadleaf Partners LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $7,801,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quantitative Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 600.2% during the first quarter. Quantitative Investment Management LLC now owns 59,878 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,639,000 after purchasing an additional 51,327 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 212.6% during the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 430,115 shares of the technology company's stock worth $33,325,000 after purchasing an additional 292,534 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 9.6% during the first quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 1,261,280 shares of the technology company's stock worth $90,468,000 after purchasing an additional 110,501 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 13.1% during the first quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 10,772 shares of the technology company's stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 337.2% during the first quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 556,739 shares of the technology company's stock worth $43,136,000 after purchasing an additional 429,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ANET. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Arista Networks from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $106.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, KGI Securities lowered Arista Networks to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.07.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.51, for a total value of $4,095,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,771,353.76. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 192,979 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.67, for a total value of $26,953,376.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,623,721 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $785,465,112.07. This represents a 3.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,823,574 shares of company stock valued at $721,676,802 over the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $133.1660 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $167.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.38, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.43 and a 1 year high of $141.99. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $113.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.80.

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

Arista Networks declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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