M&T Bank Corp Purchases 3,890,146 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• M&T Bank Corp boosted its Arista stake by 3,182.7%, adding 3,890,146 shares to own 4,012,373 shares (~0.32% of Arista) worth about $525.7M, making ANET its 9th-largest holding.
• Arista beat Q1 expectations with EPS of $0.82 versus $0.75 and revenue of $2.49B (up 28.9% YoY), reporting a 38.99% net margin and continued strong growth.
• Meanwhile, insiders sold significant stock (the CEO sold 350,000 shares under a 10b5‑1 plan and insiders sold ~674,729 shares worth $103.4M in the quarter), yet Wall Street remains largely bullish with a consensus "Buy" and an average price target of $177.83.

M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 3,182.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 3,890,146 shares during the quarter. Arista Networks accounts for about 1.6% of M&T Bank Corp's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. M&T Bank Corp owned approximately 0.32% of Arista Networks worth $525,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ANET. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $863,000 after acquiring an additional 5,955 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 48.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,097,000 after buying an additional 3,496 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in Arista Networks by 31.3% in the 2nd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 4,193 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $429,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Trading Up 3.7%

NYSE ANET opened at $173.09 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $137.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.59. The company has a market cap of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.48. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1 year low of $67.16 and a 1 year high of $173.85.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.32, for a total value of $55,762,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,333,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $849,686,539.24. This represents a 6.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 8,890 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.02, for a total transaction of $1,378,127.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 60,734 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,414,984.68. This trade represents a 12.77% 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. Insiders sold 674,729 shares of company stock worth $103,441,374 in the last quarter. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Arista Networks News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Arista Networks this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Evercore added Arista to a tactical outperform list ahead of Q1 results, signaling analyst confidence in a beat‑and‑raise setup that can drive short‑term upside into earnings. Evercore adds Arista Networks, IBM to tactical outperform list ahead of earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting Arista as a leading beneficiary of AI data‑center spending strengthens the growth narrative and justifies premium multiples as cloud/AI customers upgrade networking stacks. Arista Networks Inc. (ANET): Potential Winner of AI Networking War
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple writeups note Arista’s history of beating estimates and position the company for another upside surprise; combined with recent analyst price‑target raises, this is fueling buying momentum. Are You Looking for a Top Momentum Pick? Why Arista Networks (ANET) is a Great Choice
• Neutral Sentiment: Trending/“momentum pick” articles (Yahoo/QZ/Zacks syndication) are driving retail attention and higher intraday volume; useful for momentum traders but not definitive on fundamentals. Are You Looking for a Top Momentum Pick? Why Arista Networks (ANET) is a Great Choice (QZ)
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 350,000 shares (~$55.8M) under a pre‑arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan; the size of the sale is notable and may give some investors pause despite the plan disclosure. Insider Selling: Arista Networks NYSE: ANET CEO Sells 350,000 Shares of Stock

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. UBS Group set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $177.83.

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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