Legal & General Group Plc Has $1.20 Billion Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,051,432 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 414,053 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,197,897,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $1,558,563,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 2,934,098 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 34.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,725,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,712,788,000 after acquiring an additional 2,497,275 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its position in Arista Networks by 86.0% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at $198,285,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 17,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.42, for a total transaction of $3,213,884.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,406,009.92. The trade was a 57.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 573,509 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.13, for a total value of $119,364,428.17. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,203,250. The trade was a 95.82% decrease in their position. 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 3,935,851 shares of company stock valued at $738,332,610 over the last three months. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Arista Networks to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 price target (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $226.05.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $188.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $177.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $156.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.38, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.52 and a 1-year high of $214.89.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. 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 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.