Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading 5.8% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price traded up 5.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Truist Financial upgraded the stock to a strong-buy rating. The stock traded as high as $123.46 and last traded at $122.8450. 7,761,559 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 3% from the average session volume of 8,028,128 shares. The stock had previously closed at $116.13.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on ANET. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 target price (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $175.61.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $240,378.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,574 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,665,300.56. This trade represents a 12.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total transaction of $1,123,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 199,632 shares of company stock worth $26,936,324. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Arista formed a multi‑source agreement (MSA) for the liquid‑cooled 12.8T XPO pluggable optics module aimed at extreme AI bandwidth needs — this strengthens Arista’s product roadmap for AI data centers and could expand design wins with hyperscalers. Arista Networks (ANET) Forms MSA for Liquid-Cooled 12.8T XPO Modules
• Positive Sentiment: Susquehanna initiated coverage with a Positive rating and $160 price target, citing Arista’s positioning as an AI data‑center networking play — analyst coverage like this can lift sentiment and support higher multiples. Wall Street Backs Arista Networks as AI Data Center Play
• Positive Sentiment: Truist initiated coverage (buy/strong‑buy) and other outlets highlight a bullish stance with sizable upside estimates after Arista’s recent pullback — new institutional coverage/upgrades often trigger inflows and boost near‑term demand. Truist Securities initiates coverage of Arista Networks (ANET) with buy recommendation
• Positive Sentiment: Retail/investor commentary is bullish: The Motley Fool highlighted Arista as a top 2026 buy after a favorable change in memory pricing dynamics — positive buy pieces can support retail buying interest. Here’s Why Arista Networks (ANET) is the First Stock I’ve Purchased in 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry consolidation/update: d‑Matrix acquired GigaIO’s data‑center business (rack‑scale interconnect expertise). This is notable for the ecosystem but its direct impact on Arista is unclear — could be competitive at the rack‑scale systems level or complementary to Arista’s switch/optics roadmap. d-Matrix Boosts Rack-scale AI Capabilities With Acquisition of GigaIO Data Center Business

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $833,630,000 after acquiring an additional 5,525,828 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,396,939,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332,659 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,890,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 59.3% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,032,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,934,098 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $135.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.31. The company has a market cap of $159.22 billion, a PE ratio of 45.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.48.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 30.37%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.