Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET Shares Sold by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

Key Points

• VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al cut its Arista Networks stake by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 40,100 shares and leaving it with 457,880 shares valued at about $60.0 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains upbeat: Arista has an average Buy rating, with 3 Strong Buy, 19 Buy, and 2 Hold ratings, and an average price target of $182.83.
• Arista posted strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 and revenue of $2.71 billion, both above expectations, while revenue rose 35.1% year over year.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lowered its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 457,880 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 40,100 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $59,996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ANET. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 141.3% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 222 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ANET shares. Zacks Research upgraded Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $182.83.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Up 4.5%

ANET stock opened at $142.60 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.67. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $143.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.75. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.86 and a 52-week high of $179.80.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The firm 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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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