Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Falls 5.1% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) fell 5.1% during trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $178.47 and last traded at $185.5350. Approximately 10,294,366 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 31% from the average session volume of 7,881,721 shares. The stock had previously closed at $195.42.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $210.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $259.00 price target (up from $187.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.45.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $234.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $198.83 and a 200 day moving average of $173.87.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. The business had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 17,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.50, for a total value of $3,527,265.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,640,616. This trade represents a 57.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 130,553 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.10, for a total value of $28,343,056.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 4,774,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,036,585,416.10. This represents a 2.66% 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. Insiders have sold 3,627,449 shares of company stock worth $740,784,723 in the last three months. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ANET. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 159.4% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 121,303,125 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,606,975,000 after purchasing an additional 74,541,134 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 34.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,725,196 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,712,788,000 after acquiring an additional 2,497,275 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 199.0% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,630,196 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,635,978,000 after acquiring an additional 6,409,612 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,357,496 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,589,651,000 after acquiring an additional 388,354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,440,963 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,433,951,000 after purchasing an additional 470,451 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc develops and sells cloud networking solutions for data centers, campus environments and high-performance computing applications. Its products include Ethernet switches, routers, wireless access points and related networking equipment designed to support cloud computing, artificial intelligence, enterprise and service-provider networks.

The company’s software portfolio includes Arista EOS, its network operating system, and CloudVision, a platform that helps customers manage, automate and monitor network infrastructure.