Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

Key Points

• California Public Employees Retirement System cut its Arista Networks stake by 4.9% in the first quarter, selling 111,856 shares and ending the period with 2,148,280 shares valued at about $263.8 million.
• Several analysts remain bullish on ANET, with recent rating upgrades and price-target increases from firms including Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo; the stock’s consensus rating is Buy with an average target price of $188.95.
• Arista reported strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates with $0.87 EPS on $2.71 billion in revenue, while revenue grew 35.1% year over year and the company reiterated Q2 guidance of $0.88 EPS.

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 4.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,148,280 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 111,856 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.17% of Arista Networks worth $263,766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ANET. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $200.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $188.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.06, for a total transaction of $1,336,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 192,333 shares in the company, valued at $32,131,150.98. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 17,333 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.42, for a total transaction of $2,971,222.86. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $2,224,345.92. The trade was a 57.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 3,092,983 shares of company stock worth $519,161,650 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.0%

ANET opened at $168.60 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $106.99 and a 52 week high of $189.82. The business's 50 day moving average is $161.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $147.25. The firm has a market cap of $212.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The company's revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks Company 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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