Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Buys Shares of 404,642 Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased 404,642 Arista Networks shares worth approximately $68.7 million, while institutional investors collectively own 82.47% of the company.
• Arista reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $1.02 beating the $0.89 estimate and revenue of $3.04 billion exceeding forecasts. Revenue rose 37.7% year over year, and third-quarter EPS guidance was set at $1.06–$1.08.
• Analysts remain bullish, with a consensus “Buy” rating and a $226.05 price target, although the stock’s roughly 63.5 P/E ratio and substantial insider selling highlight valuation and profit-taking risks.

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 404,642 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $68,741,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ANET. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company's stock worth $6,154,570,000 after acquiring an additional 628,146 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,870,618,000 after purchasing an additional 380,724 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 4th 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $1,558,563,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Arista Networks by 34.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,725,196 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,712,788,000 after acquiring an additional 2,497,275 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $220.00 price objective (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $240.00 price objective (up from $181.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $226.05.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of ANET opened at $201.30 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $179.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $158.14. The company has a market cap of $253.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.60. Arista Networks, Inc. has a twelve month low of $114.52 and a twelve month high of $214.89.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. Analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total value of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 16,387,981 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,297,589,536.82. The trade was a 4.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total transaction of $60,990,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 181,143,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,826,381,658.40. This trade represents a 0.17% 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. Insiders sold a total of 3,950,082 shares of company stock worth $741,060,096 in the last ninety days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

More Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Arista remains a major beneficiary of rising AI data-center investment. Demand for high-speed networking equipment is expanding as cloud providers and technology companies build out AI infrastructure, supporting the company’s growth outlook. 3 Stocks That Are No-Brainer Buys in the Second Half of 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly bullish. The consensus price target implies approximately 26.7% upside, while several firms recently raised targets to $250 and maintained buy or overweight ratings. However, price targets are not guaranteed and may already reflect strong growth expectations. Wall Street Analysts Believe Arista Networks Could Rally 26.74%
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista’s latest quarterly results were strong, with EPS of $1.02 versus $0.89 expected and revenue of $3.04 billion versus $2.83 billion expected. Revenue increased 37.7% year over year, and management guided to third-quarter EPS of $1.06–$1.08.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares worth about $2.65 million, reducing her direct ownership by 58.2%. The transaction occurred under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, which limits its value as a bearish signal, but the size of the sale may encourage profit-taking. SEC CEO insider sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Political opposition to new AI data centers could create regulatory delays or limit construction, potentially slowing demand from Arista’s large cloud customers. Investors are also watching customer concentration and elevated valuation risk, with ANET trading at roughly 63.5 times earnings. Arista Networks Faces New Political Risk

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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