The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys 90,422 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 7.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,295,190 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 90,422 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $159,004,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IMG Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 151.1% in the 1st quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 354 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 552.3% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 376,473 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,223,000 after buying an additional 318,755 shares during the period. Castleark Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4.8% during the first quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 430,935 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $52,910,000 after buying an additional 19,658 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the first quarter worth about $666,000. Finally, Quadcap Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arista Networks by 103.2% in the first quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,728 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 3,925 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive ahead of Arista’s quarterly report, expected in early August. Positive earnings-estimate revisions, a favorable Zacks Rank and expectations for an earnings beat have increased optimism about the company’s outlook. Arista Networks on rising earnings optimism
• Positive Sentiment: Strong results from optical, cloud-connectivity and AI-exposed peers—including Corning, Sanmina and Celestica—provide favorable evidence of continued data-center and AI infrastructure spending, a key demand driver for Arista’s networking products. Corning beats second-quarter estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: A comparison with Advanced Micro Devices suggests Arista may offer stronger profitability and a more attractive relative valuation, although the article still characterizes Arista as expensive and highlights its reliance on a concentrated customer base as an important risk. AMD versus Arista Networks comparison
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista recently underperformed some technology competitors, indicating that investors may be taking a more selective approach despite the broader AI infrastructure theme. Arista Networks underperforms competitors
• Negative Sentiment: Director Kenneth Duda disclosed two sales totaling 43,333 shares at approximately $170.51 per share. Both transactions were executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing the immediate signal of discretionary selling, but the sales can still weigh on sentiment.
• Negative Sentiment: With Arista trading at a high earnings multiple, investors may demand another strong earnings beat and upbeat guidance. Any disappointment or evidence of customer-concentration risk could prompt profit-taking after the stock’s recent gains.

Arista Networks Stock Down 0.8%

NYSE:ANET opened at $169.47 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $166.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $149.32. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.52 and a 52 week high of $189.82. The stock has a market cap of $213.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.04, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ANET has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Raymond James Financial raised Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $187.00 price objective (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $189.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.67, for a total value of $39,040,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 182,043,048 shares in the company, valued at $29,612,942,618.16. The trade was a 0.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.06, for a total value of $1,336,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 192,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,131,150.98. This represents a 3.99% 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 sold a total of 2,308,316 shares of company stock worth $383,563,775 in the last 90 days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.