Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC

Key Points

• GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC cut its Arista Networks stake by 66.3% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with 8,047 shares worth about $1.05 million.
• Arista reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 versus $0.81 expected and revenue of $2.71 billion, up 35.1% year over year.
• Despite some insider selling and mixed headlines about margins, analysts remain bullish: the stock has a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $181.84.

GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC trimmed its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 66.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,047 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 15,832 shares during the period. Arista Networks makes up about 0.9% of GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,054,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ANET. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,396,939,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332,659 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $525,741,000 after acquiring an additional 3,890,146 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 310.6% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,280,122 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $298,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,724,758 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $112,875,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.6%

Shares of NYSE:ANET opened at $153.92 on Friday. The company's fifty day moving average is $145.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.18. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.86 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The company has a market cap of $193.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.67.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Key Stories Impacting Arista Networks

Here are the key news stories impacting Arista Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Arista was highlighted for strong cash flow growth, with operating cash flow reaching $1.69 billion in Q1 2026, reinforcing confidence in the durability of its AI and cloud networking demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company was named a Leader in Gartner’s 2026 Magic Quadrant for enterprise wired and wireless LAN, and it unveiled new campus networking hardware plus an upgraded AIOps platform, broadening its growth opportunity beyond data centers. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Arista continues to be featured by analysts and market commentary as a key “pick-and-shovel” AI stock and one of the cloud-computing names benefiting from hyperscaler AI buildouts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles repeated that Arista has strong profitability and upside potential, but these were largely recap-style mentions rather than new fundamental catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent headline focused on “margin anxiety” around the stock, suggesting some investors still worry about profitability pressure even amid strong growth. Article Title

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.40, for a total value of $1,403,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 208,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,541,608.20. This represents a 3.70% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,503,700 shares of company stock valued at $246,710,022. 2.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays reiterated 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $181.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $187.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $181.84.

About Arista Networks

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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