Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 3.7% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were down 3.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $156.65 and last traded at $160.3830. Approximately 9,716,918 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 11% from the average session volume of 8,765,878 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Susquehanna upgraded shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $181.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $187.63.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $159.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $143.91. The firm has a market cap of $201.95 billion, a PE ratio of 54.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.60.

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. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.04, for a total value of $2,140,947.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,531.68. This trade represents a 58.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,543,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,223,652,457.36. This represents a 0.14% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,639,080 shares of company stock worth $430,322,162. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 628,146 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,870,618,000 after purchasing an additional 380,724 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,455,095,000 after purchasing an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently 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.