SouthState Bank Corp Purchases 8,354 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• SouthState Bank Corp increased its Arista Networks stake by 87.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 8,354 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 17,945 shares worth about $2.35 million.
• Arista continues to draw bullish attention from analysts and investors, with coverage highlighting strong AI networking demand, market leadership, and expectations for continued growth. Wall Street’s consensus remains Buy, with an average target price of $185.72.
• The company recently beat quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.87 on revenue of $2.71 billion, while guidance for Q2 2026 was set at $0.88 EPS. Despite the strong results, insiders have sold shares recently, including CEO Jayshree Ullal’s large Rule 10b5-1 sale.

SouthState Bank Corp raised its position in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 87.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,945 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,354 shares during the period. SouthState Bank Corp's holdings in Arista Networks were worth $2,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $1,549,000. Bensler LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $6,350,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $22,224,000 after buying an additional 10,217 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 59.8% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,621 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,309,000 after buying an additional 6,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth $3,058,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Arista’s latest bullish commentary highlighted surging AI networking demand, market leadership, and pricing power, with management/model assumptions pointing to a larger total addressable market and strong revenue growth through 2028. Arista Networks: TAM Expansion And Surging AI Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Several recent pieces emphasized that Arista remains a favorite among growth investors because of AI infrastructure spending, high gross margins, and expectations for continued earnings expansion. US High Growth Tech Stocks with Promising Potential
• Positive Sentiment: Investor interest has stayed elevated, with multiple articles noting ANET’s strong post-earnings performance and continued attention from traders and analysts. Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage focused on valuation debate after Arista’s strong rally, suggesting investors are weighing rich expectations against its growth profile. Is It Too Late To Consider Arista Networks (ANET) After Its Strong 1-Year Rally?
• Negative Sentiment: A director sold 8,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, which can create mild sentiment pressure even though the sale was not viewed as a surprise. Arista Networks NYSE: ANET Director Charles Giancarlo Sells 8,000 Shares

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction 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, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,943,142 shares of company stock worth $314,941,943. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ANET. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $181.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup decreased 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 report on Wednesday, May 6th. KeyCorp reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $178.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded shares of Arista Networks to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $185.72.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.0%

ANET stock opened at $154.23 on Monday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $150.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $138.90. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.58 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.82, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter 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. Equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current 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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