Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 6% – Still a Buy?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares shot up 6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $211.45 and last traded at $209.73. 9,983,156 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 16% from the average daily volume of 8,641,758 shares. The stock had previously closed at $197.85.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $210.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $250.00 target price on Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Arista Networks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $226.05.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.41. The firm has a market cap of $251.51 billion, a PE ratio of 62.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced 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. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.65% and a net margin of 38.37%.The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of Arista Networks 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 16,387,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,297,589,536.82. The trade was a 4.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. This trade represents a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 3,819,659 shares of company stock valued at $687,397,841 over the last three months. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Sankala Group LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Main Street Group LTD purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.