Godfrey Financial Associates Inc. Takes $1.01 Million Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Godfrey Financial Associates opened a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter, buying 7,696 shares worth about $1.01 million. The stake represents about 0.9% of the firm’s holdings and its 18th-largest position.
• Arista Networks continues to draw strong institutional interest, with hedge funds and other investors owning 82.47% of the stock. Several firms, including Arrowstreet Capital and M&T Bank, significantly increased their holdings.
• Analysts remain bullish on ANET, with multiple firms raising price targets and the consensus rating sitting at “Buy” with an average target of $185.72. The company also beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth.

Godfrey Financial Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,696 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,008,000. Arista Networks comprises approximately 0.9% of Godfrey Financial Associates Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,396,939,000 after buying an additional 4,332,659 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $525,741,000 after buying an additional 3,890,146 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 310.6% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,280,122 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $298,868,000 after buying an additional 1,724,758 shares during the last quarter. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $164,907,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after buying an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 target price (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $187.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $181.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $185.72.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.31, for a total transaction of $5,225,920.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $2,119,110.56. This represents a 71.15% 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 have sold 1,706,885 shares of company stock worth $277,584,100 in the last 90 days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $154.17 on Thursday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.86 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The firm's 50 day moving average is $146.62 and its 200 day moving average is $137.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.67.

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