Westerkirk Capital Inc. Acquires 17,900 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Key Points

• Westerkirk Capital increased its Arista Networks stake by 55% in Q4, buying 17,900 additional shares to bring its holdings to 50,436 shares worth about $6.6 million.
• Arista continues to draw bullish attention from analysts and investors on the back of AI infrastructure and cloud/data-center demand, with Bank of America raising its price target to $200 and maintaining a Buy rating.
• The company reported strong quarterly results, including EPS of $0.87 versus $0.81 expected and revenue of $2.71 billion, up 35.1% year over year, while guidance for Q2 2026 was set at $0.88 EPS.

Westerkirk Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Free Report) by 55.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,436 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the period. Westerkirk Capital Inc.'s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $6,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 321.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company's stock worth $863,000 after purchasing an additional 5,955 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 48.4% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 31.3% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 4,193 shares of the technology company's stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Arista Networks News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Arista is being viewed as a beneficiary of the AI infrastructure buildout, with analysts and commentators pointing to strong execution, accelerated revenue and EPS growth, and tailwinds from cloud and data-center spending by major tech companies. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on ANET to $200 from $185 and kept a Buy rating, reinforcing optimism that the stock still has upside after the recent pullback. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent articles argue the stock’s pullback may be a dip-buying opportunity because Arista’s FY2026 guidance has been raised and demand trends in hyperscale and AI networking remain strong. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary noted ANET has been mixed short term, with some momentum fading over the past week even though the stock has still gained over the past month and quarter. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares in a pre-arranged trading plan, a headline that can weigh on sentiment even though the sale was disclosed under a 10b5-1 plan. Article Title

Arista Networks Price Performance

ANET stock opened at $156.32 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $151.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.13. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.58 and a fifty-two week high of $179.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.83 billion, a PE ratio of 53.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks's revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.06, for a total value of $39,134,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 331,848 shares in the company, valued at $54,111,134.88. The trade was a 41.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,183,142 shares of company stock worth $354,076,343 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Truist Financial set a $175.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research cut shares of Arista Networks from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $195.00 target price (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $186.47.

Arista Networks Profile

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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