Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 2.4% on Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price dropped 2.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $153.57 and last traded at $154.1710. Approximately 6,859,318 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average daily volume of 8,808,458 shares. The stock had previously closed at $158.01.

Specifically, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total value of $61,797.68. Following the sale, the director directly owned 10,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,822.32. This trade represents a 4.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 971 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.93, for a total value of $136,843.03. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,378,859.12. This represents a 9.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $181.84.

Arista Networks Stock Down 2.4%

The company has a market capitalization of $194.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a 50-day moving average of $146.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.17.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. 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 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,396,939,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332,659 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $525,741,000 after buying an additional 3,890,146 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 59.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,032,302,000 after buying an additional 2,934,098 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in Arista Networks by 86.0% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $520,168,000 after buying an additional 1,960,829 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Arista Networks

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.