Merit Financial Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. by 4.4%, owning 53,894 shares valued at approximately $5.5 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Arista Networks reported earnings of $0.73 per share for the quarter, surpassing expectations of $0.65, with year-over-year revenue growth of 30.4% to $2.20 billion.
• Institutional ownership of Arista Networks is high, with 82.47% of shares held by institutional investors, including increases by major firms like AllianceBernstein and Goldman Sachs.

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,894 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,265 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $5,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after purchasing an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Arista Networks by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 22,959,214 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,778,880,000 after buying an additional 1,889,198 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the first quarter valued at about $933,626,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 3.7% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,315,493 shares of the technology company's stock worth $799,244,000 after acquiring an additional 372,677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 37.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,552,484 shares of the technology company's stock worth $740,126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,594,184 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of ANET opened at $149.61 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $188.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.84, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.47. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $156.32. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $138.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $107.14.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 40.90%.The company had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.22, for a total transaction of $243,175,176.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,698,074 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $776,191,640.28. This represents a 23.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,678,904 shares of company stock valued at $894,021,161. Insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $162.00.

Arista Networks Profile

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.

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