Erste Group Bank Expects Higher Earnings for Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) – Equities research analysts at Erste Group Bank upped their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of Arista Networks in a report issued on Monday, July 27th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now forecasts that the technology company will post earnings of $3.26 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $3.25. Erste Group Bank currently has a “Buy” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Arista Networks’ current full-year earnings is $3.28 per share.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s quarterly 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.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Susquehanna upgraded Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective (up from $185.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $178.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $189.74.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $169.47 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $213.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.04, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $166.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.32. Arista Networks has a 52 week low of $114.52 and a 52 week high of $189.82.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,558,563,000. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Arista Networks by 3,182.7% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $525,741,000 after buying an additional 3,890,146 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,032,302,000 after buying an additional 2,934,098 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 86.0% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $520,168,000 after buying an additional 1,960,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth about $198,285,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.06, for a total value of $1,336,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 192,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,131,150.98. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.67, for a total value of $39,040,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 182,043,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,612,942,618.16. This represents a 0.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,308,316 shares of company stock worth $383,563,775. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst estimate raised: Erste Group Bank increased its FY2026 earnings forecast for Arista Networks to $3.26 per share from $3.25 and maintained a “Buy” rating. The revised estimate remains close to the broader consensus of $3.28, signaling continued confidence in the company’s earnings trajectory. Erste Group Bank earnings estimate report
• Positive Sentiment: Optimism ahead of earnings: Analysts expect Arista Networks to deliver earnings growth in its upcoming report, anticipated in early August. Positive estimate revisions, favorable analyst rankings and the potential for another earnings beat are supporting the bullish case for the stock. Arista Networks earnings expectations
• Neutral Sentiment: Peer comparisons highlight industry demand: Strong results from Corning, Sanmina and Celestica, driven by AI, cloud connectivity and optical demand, reinforce the broader data-center spending opportunity relevant to Arista. However, Arista underperformed competitors in the latest comparison, limiting the immediate benefit from the favorable sector backdrop. Arista Networks peer performance report
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and concentration risks remain: Commentary comparing Arista with AMD notes that Arista’s premium profitability is accompanied by significant customer-concentration risk. With the shares trading at elevated valuation multiples, investors may demand strong guidance and execution from the upcoming report. AMD versus Arista Networks comparison
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sales add a modest sentiment headwind: Kenneth Duda sold a combined 43,333 shares worth approximately $7.4 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Because the sales were planned, they do not necessarily indicate deteriorating business conditions, but they can weigh on investor sentiment. Arista Networks insider transaction filing

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.