Insider Selling: Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Major Shareholder Sells $34,509,200.00 in Stock

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.86, for a total transaction of $34,509,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,803,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,674,486,109.28. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Major shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Andreas Bechtolsheim also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, May 22nd, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 205,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.74, for a total transaction of $31,106,700.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET stock opened at $159.09 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $147.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $137.61. The company has a market capitalization of $200.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.48, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.86 and a 52-week high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $1,558,563,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Arista Networks by 82.5% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,396,939,000 after purchasing an additional 4,332,659 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $525,741,000 after purchasing an additional 3,890,146 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,032,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,934,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Arista Networks by 86.0% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $520,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,960,829 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Arista Networks as a strong growth stock, pointing to its appeal across growth and momentum screens and reinforcing the view that ANET remains a high-quality long-term compounder. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Another Zacks note said ANET is benefiting from AI infrastructure spending, with hyperscalers expanding networks and driving demand for next-generation Ethernet products, which supports the company’s growth outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive on Arista Networks, with multiple analysts reiterating Buy/Overweight ratings and lifting price targets, reflecting confidence in continued revenue and earnings growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings were solid, with Arista beating EPS and revenue estimates and posting 35% year-over-year revenue growth, which continues to underpin bullish sentiment.
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional ownership remains high, and several small new positions were reported, but these filings are unlikely to be a major near-term driver on their own.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales by CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt, CEO Jayshree Ullal, and major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim may create some short-term caution, even though the trades were made under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $185.72.

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.