Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 22,271 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Natixis Advisors LLC cut its Arista Networks position by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 22,271 shares and leaving it with 1,534,883 shares worth about $201.1 million.
• Institutional ownership remains heavy, with firms like Vanguard, State Street, Geode, Norges Bank, and Invesco all holding large stakes; overall, institutions own about 82.47% of Arista’s shares.
• Analyst sentiment is bullish, with an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $185.72, while Arista also posted strong quarterly results, including 35.1% revenue growth and earnings above expectations.

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,534,883 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 22,271 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.12% of Arista Networks worth $201,116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after buying an additional 1,188,799 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,342,551 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,752,573,000 after buying an additional 245,976 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,094,255 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,470,834,000 after buying an additional 181,813 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ANET. Truist Financial set a $175.00 target price on Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Susquehanna raised Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $185.72.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.86, for a total value of $34,509,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 182,803,048 shares in the company, valued at $28,674,486,109.28. This represents a 0.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,935,142 shares of company stock worth $313,589,223. Insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of ANET opened at $170.91 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $85.58 and a 52 week high of $179.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.53, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $148.22 and a 200-day moving average of $137.86.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue 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. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

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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