Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Invests $285,000 in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC invested $285,000 in Arista Networks, acquiring 3,677 shares in the 1st quarter, highlighting growing institutional interest in the company.
• CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,785,165 shares at an average price of $136.22, representing a significant decrease of 23.86% in her ownership of the stock.
• Arista Networks reported a net margin of 40.90% and a year-over-year revenue increase of 30.4%, with EPS surpassing analyst expectations at $0.73.

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 3,677 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $285,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,771,982 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after buying an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the first quarter worth $933,626,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,248,169,000 after purchasing an additional 8,671,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3.7% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,315,493 shares of the technology company's stock worth $799,244,000 after purchasing an additional 372,677 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ANET shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $115.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $106.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $123.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $89.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $150.00 price target on Arista Networks and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.07.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Arista Networks stock traded up $0.4540 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $131.9240. 5,872,054 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,518,582. The stock has a market capitalization of $165.81 billion, a PE ratio of 51.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.37. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $141.99. The business's 50-day moving average is $112.32 and its 200-day moving average is $96.65.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Arista Networks's revenue for the quarter was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, May 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.51, for a total transaction of $4,095,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 12,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,771,353.76. The trade was a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.01, for a total value of $936,080.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 57,784 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,761,305.84. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,823,574 shares of company stock valued at $721,676,802. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.