Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Jumps 1% – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) was up 1% on Thursday. The company traded as high as $206.54 and last traded at $205.6010. 3,554,695 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 8,100,731 shares. The stock had previously closed at $203.47.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ANET. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up from $181.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, September 18th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $259.00 price target (up from $187.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-one have issued a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $227.80.

Arista Networks Stock Up 1.0%

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $189.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $166.13. The company has a market capitalization of $259.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.62.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.65% and a net margin of 38.37%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total transaction of $60,990,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 181,143,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. The trade was a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total transaction of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 16,387,981 shares in the company, valued at $3,297,589,536.82. This represents a 4.47% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,827,694 shares of company stock worth $745,740,910. 2.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 181.2% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 523,202 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $88,882,000 after purchasing an additional 337,133 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 165.9% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 159,817 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,150,000 after purchasing an additional 99,707 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 199.0% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,630,196 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,635,978,000 after buying an additional 6,409,612 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 106.2% in the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 515,400 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $87,556,000 after buying an additional 265,400 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 159.4% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 121,303,125 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $20,606,975,000 after buying an additional 74,541,134 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc designs, develops and sells cloud networking solutions for large data centers, cloud service providers, internet companies, enterprises and other organizations. Its portfolio includes high-performance Ethernet switches, routers and wireless networking products used to connect servers, storage systems, users and applications across data center and campus environments.

The company’s software offerings include Arista EOS, its Linux-based network operating system, and CloudVision, a cloud-based platform for network management, automation, monitoring and analytics.