Madison Asset Management LLC Sells 16,403 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Madison Asset Management trimmed its Arista Networks stake by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 16,403 shares and leaving it with 712,155 shares valued at about $93.3 million.
• Insiders have been selling heavily, including CEO Jayshree Ullal’s sale of 428,000 shares for about $75.9 million; insiders sold 1.5 million shares over the past three months.
• Analysts remain bullish on ANET, with a consensus “Buy” rating and average price target of $182.83, while the company also beat last quarter’s earnings and revenue estimates.

Madison Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 712,155 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 16,403 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks makes up 1.1% of Madison Asset Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Madison Asset Management LLC owned 0.06% of Arista Networks worth $93,314,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.4% during the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,133,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company's stock worth $827,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.9% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 8,364 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,219,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the technology company's stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 value 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,740,600.64. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719. 3.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $181.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $188.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $182.83.

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET opened at $142.60 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $83.86 and a one year high of $179.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $143.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $137.75.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion for 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 revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current 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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