McLaughlin Asset Management Inc. Buys New Shares in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

McLaughlin Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 8,832 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,157,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,154,570,000 after buying an additional 628,146 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET opened at $169.84 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $213.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.61. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.58 and a fifty-two week high of $179.80. The business’s 50-day moving average is $157.61 and its 200-day moving average is $141.24.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 analyst estimates 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 was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total transaction of $43,048,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. This trade represents a 0.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.09, for a total value of $1,352,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 200,333 shares in the company, valued at $33,874,306.97. This trade represents a 3.84% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,603,747 shares of company stock worth $423,901,619. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wolfe Research reaffirmed an Outperform rating on Arista Networks with a $175 price target, following discussions with management that reinforced confidence in the company’s growth outlook. Wolfe Research Reaffirms Bullish View on Arista Networks (ANET) With $175 Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: KeyBanc’s bullish stance highlights Arista as a beneficiary of strong AI-related networking demand, which supports the company’s long-term data center growth story. Arista sees bullish views at KeyBanc on AI demand
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage continues to frame Arista as a key player in AI infrastructure and data center switching, keeping investor interest elevated in the stock. Why Is Arista Networks Driving S&P 500 AI Infrastructure Growth?
• Neutral Sentiment: Nvidia taking the top spot in the data center Ethernet switching market underscores how competitive the AI networking space has become, though it also reinforces the size of the market Arista is targeting. Nvidia Overtakes Rivals in Data Center Switching Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista remains in focus after a strong multi-month run, with some commentary asking whether the stock has already priced in much of the good news. Arista Networks (ANET) Stock After 87% Annual Gain Is It Time To Pause?
• Negative Sentiment: Major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares in a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 transaction, which may create modest pressure on sentiment even though the sale was small relative to his holdings. SEC filing for Andreas Bechtolsheim transaction
• Negative Sentiment: Recent market coverage noted that ANET declined more than the broader market, suggesting some short-term profit-taking after its powerful run. Arista Networks (ANET) Declines More Than Market: Some Information for Investors

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $181.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $178.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday. Two equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $187.63.

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.