IFM Investors Pty Ltd Grows Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in Arista Networks by 4.2% in the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to 223,962 shares worth about $27.5 million.
• Arista Networks reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates with $0.87 per share on $2.71 billion in revenue, and revenue rose 35.1% year over year.
• Despite strong fundamentals, the stock saw heavy insider selling in recent months, while Wall Street remains upbeat with a consensus Buy rating and average price target of $187.63.

IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 4.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 223,962 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 9,118 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $27,498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,549,000. Bensler LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $6,350,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $22,224,000 after buying an additional 10,217 shares during the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,058,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 59.8% in the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,621 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,591 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.7%

NYSE:ANET opened at $170.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $214.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.29, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.61. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $159.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.32. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $97.14 and a 12-month high of $179.80.

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. 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 the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total transaction of $43,048,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,223,652,457.36. This trade represents a 0.14% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,639,080 shares of company stock valued at $430,322,162. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ANET. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $190.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. KeyCorp reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $200.00 price target (up from $178.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $187.63.

Arista Networks Company 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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