Lazard Asset Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 552.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 376,473 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 318,755 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $46,223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ANET. Main Street Group LTD acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 184.9% during the first quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 245 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 234,578 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.18, for a total value of $43,908,310.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,134,207 shares in the company, valued at $961,020,866.26. The trade was a 4.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.67, for a total transaction of $39,040,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 182,043,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,612,942,618.16. This trade represents a 0.13% decrease in their position. 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,264,983 shares of company stock worth $376,175,065. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $187.00 target price (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $189.74.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

NYSE ANET opened at $170.44 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $165.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.60. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.52 and a fifty-two week high of $189.82.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The business had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks 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.