Polar Capital Holdings Plc Reduces Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Polar Capital Holdings cut its Arista Networks stake by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, though it still held 1.24 million shares valued at about $163.1 million.
• Several analysts remain bullish on Arista, with recent upgrades and raised price targets including Bank of America’s $200 target; the stock currently has a consensus Buy rating and $186.47 target price.
• Arista reported strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates with 35.1% year-over-year revenue growth, while insiders also continued to sell shares under pre-arranged trading plans.

Polar Capital Holdings Plc reduced its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,244,655 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 72,555 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc owned 0.10% of Arista Networks worth $163,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,133,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company's stock worth $827,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its position in Arista Networks by 0.9% during the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 8,364 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $318,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Clark Financial Services Group Inc. BD raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Clark Financial Services Group Inc. BD now owns 3,776 shares of the technology company's stock worth $518,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Arista Networks to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $186.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.31, for a total value of $5,225,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,119,110.56. This represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the firm'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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,343,747 shares of company stock valued at $380,853,419. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE ANET opened at $168.48 on Wednesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.58 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The company has a market cap of $212.15 billion, a PE ratio of 57.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.61. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $140.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last 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 forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Arista Networks

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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