National Pension Service Sells 82,776 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• National Pension Service reduced its stake in Arista Networks by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 82,776 shares and ending with about 3.01 million shares valued at roughly $394.7 million.
• Arista Networks reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 topping estimates and revenue rising 35.1% year over year to $2.71 billion. The company also issued Q2 guidance for EPS of 0.88.
• Analysts remain largely bullish on the stock, with an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $185.72, even as a few firms adjusted their targets slightly.

National Pension Service cut its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,012,415 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 82,776 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.24% of Arista Networks worth $394,717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,396,939,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332,659 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $525,741,000 after purchasing an additional 3,890,146 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 310.6% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,280,122 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $298,868,000 after purchasing an additional 1,724,758 shares during the period. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $164,907,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,799 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $155.21 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $147.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.46. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $83.86 and a one year high of $179.80. The firm has a market cap of $195.44 billion, a PE ratio of 53.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.67.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.86, for a total transaction of $34,509,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 182,803,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $28,674,486,109.28. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a 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, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,943,142 shares of company stock valued at $314,618,583. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on ANET shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $164.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $185.72.

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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