Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 4.6% – What’s Next?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) were down 4.6% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $154.74 and last traded at $157.7990. Approximately 11,756,681 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 35% from the average session volume of 8,739,146 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.45.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ANET. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $181.00 target price (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.63.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $198.70 billion, a PE ratio of 54.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.61. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $159.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $142.71.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 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 firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total transaction of $43,048,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 182,543,048 shares in the company, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. The trade was a 0.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 428,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,209,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. This represents a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold 2,647,080 shares of company stock valued at $431,329,762 over the last ninety days. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,000 after acquiring an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 48.4% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 31.3% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 4,193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.