Jennison Associates LLC Acquires 8,172 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Jennison Associates LLC increased its Arista Networks stake by 3.0% in the first quarter, buying 8,172 additional shares and bringing its total to 279,269 shares worth about $34.3 million.
• Arista Networks reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 beating estimates and revenue of $2.71 billion topping expectations; revenue rose 35.1% year over year.
• Despite the strong fundamentals, insider selling continued, including shares sold by major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim and CEO Jayshree Ullal, while analysts remain broadly positive with a consensus Buy rating and average price target of $188.95.

Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 3.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 279,269 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 8,172 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $34,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Main Street Group LTD bought a new stake in Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET stock opened at $169.17 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $106.99 and a 52 week high of $189.82. The firm's fifty day moving average is $162.41 and its 200 day moving average is $147.60. The firm has a market cap of $213.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.60.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The firm'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. As a group, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 value of $43,048,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,223,652,457.36. The trade was a 0.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the 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. This represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,692,983 shares of company stock worth $452,119,385. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ANET shares. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Truist Financial set a $175.00 price target on Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $188.95.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ANET? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.