Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 2.7% – Here’s Why

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shot up 2.7% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $160.14 and last traded at $158.21. 11,640,795 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 32% from the average session volume of 8,826,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.03.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $187.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $195.00 target price (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $181.84.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $199.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.18, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.67. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $145.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.05.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at $924,321,690.08. This trade represents a 7.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 971 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.93, for a total transaction of $136,843.03. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,378,859.12. This trade represents a 9.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 1,503,278 shares of company stock valued at $246,655,981 over the last 90 days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Summitry LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $403,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 47,251 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385 shares in the last quarter. BankChampaign National Association acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $817,000. Groupe la Francaise boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 139,335 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,096,000 after purchasing an additional 12,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liontrust Investment Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,510,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.