Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

ANET has been the topic of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $259.00 price objective (up from $187.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-three have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $226.05.

Arista Networks Stock Up 3.0%

NYSE:ANET opened at $197.35 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $171.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $153.43. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $114.52 and a twelve month high of $214.89. The stock has a market cap of $248.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.25, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total value of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 16,387,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,297,589,536.82. The trade was a 4.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.02, for a total value of $1,448,160.00. Following the sale, the director owned 184,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,367,959.66. This represents a 4.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,819,659 shares of company stock valued at $687,397,841. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,558,563,000. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in 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 period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,725,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,712,788,000 after buying an additional 2,497,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 86.0% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $520,168,000 after buying an additional 1,960,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

More Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Record Q2 results strengthened the AI infrastructure narrative. Arista reported $3.04 billion in second-quarter revenue, its first quarter above $3 billion, representing 37.7% year-over-year growth and exceeding consensus by approximately $210 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.02 also surpassed estimates by $0.13. Strong hyperscaler and AI data-center spending helped drive the results. Arista’s Record Quarter Reignites the AI Networking Debate
• Positive Sentiment: Revenue guidance and component availability are supporting the outlook. Arista continues to raise its revenue expectations as it secures key components. The company appears to be constrained more by parts than customer orders, suggesting demand remains strong if supply agreements hold. Arista Networks Stock Is Waiting on Parts, Not Orders
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment and momentum indicators remain favorable. The average analyst recommendation is “Buy,” while several firms recently increased price targets following the earnings beat. Rising earnings estimates and a roughly 4.6% one-week gain are attracting momentum investors. Short interest also fell 35.6% during July to about 1.0% of shares outstanding, reducing potential selling pressure. Arista Witnesses an Uptrend in Estimate Revision
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation is the central market debate. Arista’s exposure to multiyear AI capital spending, Ethernet expansion and large cloud customers supports its growth prospects. However, elevated earnings multiples mean the stock may require continued earnings beats and strong AI spending to sustain further gains. Arista Networks: Hefty Growth Premium Baked In
• Negative Sentiment: Major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 111,848 shares worth about $21.6 million. The sale cut his direct ownership by roughly half, although it occurred under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and therefore may not signal weakening confidence in Arista’s business. Arista Networks Insider Sale

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.