Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 1.8% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Arista Networks shares fell 1.8% to about $185.78, with trading volume roughly 50% below average. The stock remains above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $225.76; recent targets range as high as $250.
• The company recently beat quarterly estimates, reporting $1.02 in EPS and $3.04 billion in revenue, up 37.7% year over year. However, insiders have sold more than $800 million of shares over the past 90 days, including sales by the CEO and a director.

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) fell 1.8% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $184.08 and last traded at $185.7770. Approximately 4,225,679 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 8,382,116 shares. The stock had previously closed at $189.26.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANET has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $164.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating and set a $175.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $225.76.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.8%

The stock's 50 day moving average is $181.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $159.22. The stock has a market cap of $234.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.60, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.62.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. Arista Networks's quarterly revenue was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.34, for a total value of $79,057.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 10,194 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,909,743.96. This represents a 3.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.79, for a total transaction of $2,648,428.11. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,901,981.43. The trade was a 58.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 4,242,082 shares of company stock worth $800,487,376 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,549,000. Bensler LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $6,350,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Arista Networks by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $22,224,000 after purchasing an additional 10,217 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 59.8% in the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,621 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,309,000 after purchasing an additional 6,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,058,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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