Strs Ohio Purchases Shares of 869,033 Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Strs Ohio has invested approximately $67.33 million in Arista Networks, acquiring 869,033 shares during the first quarter.
• Analysts have upgraded their target prices for Arista Networks, with KeyCorp increasing it to $145 and UBS Group to $155, reflecting a positive outlook for the company.
• CEO Jayshree Ullal recently sold over 56,000 shares for approximately $8.12 million, reducing her ownership stake in the company.

Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 869,033 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $67,333,000. Strs Ohio owned about 0.07% of Arista Networks as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,856,933 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,581,955,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 9.0% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 22,959,214 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,778,880,000 after buying an additional 1,889,198 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the first quarter valued at about $933,626,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 330.8% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,292,585 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,248,169,000 after buying an additional 8,671,235 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 3.7% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,315,493 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $799,244,000 after buying an additional 372,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Arista Networks stock traded down $13.69 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $139.35. The stock had a trading volume of 17,882,765 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,918,403. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $126.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.21. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $59.43 and a 1-year high of $156.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.50.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 40.90%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp increased their target price on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Melius Research increased their target price on Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $157.56.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.01, for a total value of $936,080.00. Following the sale, the director owned 57,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,761,305.84. This trade represents a 12.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,247,688 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.53, for a total value of $185,319,098.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,383,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $799,567,735.71. This represents a 18.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,582,614 shares of company stock valued at $980,712,097. 3.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.