Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Major Shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim Sells 220,000 Shares

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.86, for a total transaction of $34,509,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 182,803,048 shares in the company, valued at $28,674,486,109.28. This represents a 0.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Major shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s stock are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Andreas Bechtolsheim also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, May 22nd, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 205,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.74, for a total transaction of $31,106,700.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

NYSE ANET opened at $155.21 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $147.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.86 and a 52-week high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $185.72.

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.