Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 2.3% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price was down 2.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $198.25 and last traded at $198.9080. Approximately 4,699,543 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 8,615,587 shares. The stock had previously closed at $203.62.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Arista Networks to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.05.

Arista Networks Stock Down 2.3%

The company has a market capitalization of $250.87 billion, a PE ratio of 62.75, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $154.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total value of $60,990,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 181,143,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. This represents a 0.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total value of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 16,387,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,297,589,536.82. This trade represents a 4.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,819,659 shares of company stock valued at $687,397,841. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cura Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3.1% during the second quarter. Cura Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,748 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Madison Wealth Partners Inc lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Madison Wealth Partners Inc now owns 2,179 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Intrua Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 2,307 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 5,403 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 37.2% in the first quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 247 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.