Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management cut its Arista Networks position by 63.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 317,588 shares and leaving it with 182,603 shares valued at about $24 million.
• Arista Networks also saw significant insider selling, including CEO Jayshree Ullal’s sale of 428,000 shares and CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt’s sale of 8,890 shares. Insiders have sold 1.44 million shares worth roughly $238.4 million over the last 90 days.
• Despite the selling, analysts remain broadly positive: several firms raised price targets, Raymond James upgraded the stock to Outperform, and the consensus rating stays at Buy with an average target price of $181.84. The company also reported strong Q1 results, with revenue up 35.1% year over year to $2.71 billion.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. reduced its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 63.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 182,603 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 317,588 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $24,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Phoenix Financial Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 19,347 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,534,000 after purchasing an additional 4,466 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 684,003 shares of the technology company's stock worth $89,625,000 after purchasing an additional 126,904 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 436,959 shares of the technology company's stock worth $57,353,000 after purchasing an additional 51,320 shares during the last quarter. Triton Wealth Management PLLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $275,000. Finally, New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 145,546 shares of the technology company's stock worth $19,071,000 after purchasing an additional 4,753 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 8,890 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.02, for a total value of $1,378,127.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 60,734 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,414,984.68. This represents a 12.77% 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. Insiders sold a total of 1,444,729 shares of company stock worth $238,448,539 over the last 90 days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $178.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $195.00 price target (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $187.00 price target (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $164.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $181.84.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James upgraded Arista Networks to Outperform from Market Perform and raised its price target to $164, citing improving revenue growth prospects into 2027 and beyond. Raymond James flips Arista (ANET) to outperform with $164 target
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage around Arista highlighted it as a key beneficiary of AI data center networking upgrades, reinforcing the view that the company is well positioned for secular demand from next-generation cloud and AI infrastructure. Why Arista Networks (ANET) Is Central to AI Data Center Networking Upgrades
• Positive Sentiment: Recent articles also pointed to Arista’s strong Q1 results, with revenue up 35.1% year over year to $2.71 billion and guidance for about $2.8 billion in Q2 revenue, supporting the growth narrative. Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET): Among Stocks That Will Make You Rich Over the Next Decade
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista’s presentation at J.P. Morgan’s technology conference kept the stock in focus, but the transcript itself did not add a clearly new catalyst beyond the existing growth story. Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) Presents at J.P. Morgan 54th Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference Transcript

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE:ANET opened at $141.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $144.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $137.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.46, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.86 and a 1 year high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks's revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

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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