Insider Selling: Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) CEO Sells 112,812 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 112,812 shares of Arista on April 13 at an average price of $150.11 for about $16.93 million, leaving her with 9,917 shares (a 91.92% reduction) and executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
• Arista recently beat quarterly estimates (EPS $0.82 vs. $0.75; revenue $2.49B vs. $2.38B, up 28.9% YoY) and carries strong margins, while analysts maintain a consensus Buy rating with an average price target of $176.44 as the stock trades around $154.

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 112,812 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.11, for a total value of $16,934,209.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,488,640.87. This represents a 91.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE ANET traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, reaching $154.13. 5,829,337 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,822,748. The business's fifty day moving average price is $134.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $193.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.48. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $66.59 and a fifty-two week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in Arista Networks by 56.7% during the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Prosperity Bancshares Inc acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Arista Networks from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a "buy" rating and a $161.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group set a $200.00 target price on Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Three 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $176.44.

Key Headlines Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Arista from “hold” to “strong-buy,” a direct positive signal that can support buying interest. Zacks.com Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Ciena lifted capex and reported a $7B backlog as AI-driven networking demand surges — an industry-capex acceleration that bodes well for Arista’s addressable market and order visibility. Ciena Capex Article
• Positive Sentiment: Cisco’s AI networking momentum (21% revenue growth) underscores broad enterprise/hyperscaler demand for high‑performance networking — a sector tailwind for Arista. Cisco AI Networking Article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight Arista as a backbone for AI infrastructure (hyperscale data centers, low-latency/high-throughput switching), supporting longer-term revenue growth expectations. Zacks AI Demand Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent coverage notes Arista outperforming the broader market in the latest session — useful momentum context but not a catalyst by itself. Outperforms Market Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Preview pieces and analyst roundups discuss what to expect at the next earnings report and reiterate bullish broker views; informative for modeling but not new fundamental news. Earnings Preview (MSN)
• Negative Sentiment: Media reminders that average brokerage recommendations can be overly optimistic highlight execution/expectation risk — if results disappoint versus elevated forecasts, ANET could see downside. Should You Invest Article

Arista Networks Company 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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