Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Acquires 76,800 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its Arista Networks stake by 15.4% in Q4, adding 76,800 shares to bring its total to 576,991 shares worth about $75.6 million.
• Arista Networks continues to draw support from analysts, with several firms reiterating Buy/Overweight ratings and the consensus price target sitting at $185.72.
• The company posted strong recent results, including 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth and earnings that beat estimates, while insider selling and high institutional ownership remained notable background factors.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 576,991 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 76,800 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $75,603,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Key Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Arista Networks as a strong growth stock, pointing to its appeal across growth and momentum screens and reinforcing the view that ANET remains a high-quality long-term compounder. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Another Zacks note said ANET is benefiting from AI infrastructure spending, with hyperscalers expanding networks and driving demand for next-generation Ethernet products, which supports the company’s growth outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive on Arista Networks, with multiple analysts reiterating Buy/Overweight ratings and lifting price targets, reflecting confidence in continued revenue and earnings growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings were solid, with Arista beating EPS and revenue estimates and posting 35% year-over-year revenue growth, which continues to underpin bullish sentiment.
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional ownership remains high, and several small new positions were reported, but these filings are unlikely to be a major near-term driver on their own.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales by CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt, CEO Jayshree Ullal, and major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim may create some short-term caution, even though the trades were made under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $195.00 target price (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $188.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Two equities 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. According to MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $185.72.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 2,448 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.00, for a total value of $384,336.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 64,408 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,112,056. This trade represents a 3.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total transaction of $61,797.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,078 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,475,822.32. The trade was a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,943,142 shares of company stock valued at $314,618,583. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $159.09 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $147.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $137.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $200.33 billion, a PE ratio of 54.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.86 and a fifty-two week high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect 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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