Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Buys 1,960,829 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Arista Networks by 86% in the first quarter, buying 1,960,829 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 4,240,951 shares worth about $520.2 million.
• Arista Networks reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $0.87 versus $0.81 expected and revenue of $2.71 billion versus $2.62 billion expected; revenue rose 35.1% year over year.
• Despite strong fundamentals and mostly bullish analyst ratings, the stock was down 4.6% in Friday trading, while insiders including Andreas Bechtolsheim and CEO Jayshree Ullal recently sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans.

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 86.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,240,951 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 1,960,829 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned approximately 0.34% of Arista Networks worth $520,168,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $13,258,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Arista Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,154,570,000 after purchasing an additional 628,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,870,618,000 after purchasing an additional 380,724 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Down 4.6%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $157.80 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $97.14 and a 12 month high of $179.80. The company has a market cap of $198.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.61. The business's 50 day moving average is $159.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $142.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 182,543,048 shares in the company, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. This trade represents a 0.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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 dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their position. 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 quarter, insiders have sold 2,647,080 shares of company stock valued at $431,329,762. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ANET. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up from $180.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $187.63.

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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