Aviva PLC Buys 46,881 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Aviva PLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 46,881 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 893,384 shares valued at about $117.1 million.
• Arista Networks continues to attract mostly positive analyst coverage, with several firms raising price targets or upgrading ratings; the consensus view remains Buy with an average target price of $185.95.
• The company recently beat earnings expectations, reporting $0.87 EPS on $2.71 billion in revenue, while insider selling by major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim and CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt may be a sentiment headwind.

Aviva PLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 893,384 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 46,881 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC owned approximately 0.07% of Arista Networks worth $117,060,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the third quarter worth $33,000. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

More Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Arista’s rollout of its 7060XE7 Series 1.6T networking platforms supports the AI growth story, as the products are designed for rack-scale AI infrastructure and higher-capacity data-center networking. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank raised its FY2027 earnings estimate for Arista Networks, adding to signs that Wall Street expects continued earnings growth. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market volatility tied to AI spending, interest rates, and growth concerns may be increasing attention on AI infrastructure names like ANET, but it is not a company-specific catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling by major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim may weigh on sentiment, even though the trades were made under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of several research reports. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Arista Networks from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $181.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report 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 report on Friday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $185.95.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock opened at $156.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.01 billion, a PE ratio of 53.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.61. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $85.58 and a 1-year high of $179.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $153.66 and a 200 day moving average of $139.83.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.93, for a total transaction of $34,744,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 111,848 shares in the company, valued at $17,664,154.64. This represents a 66.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 2,448 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.00, for a total value of $384,336.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 64,408 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,112,056. The trade was a 3.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 2,403,142 shares of company stock worth $388,820,943 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

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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