Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Price Target Cut to $173.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its price objective reduced by Citigroup from $176.00 to $173.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $184.00 price objective (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna raised Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.22.

Arista Networks Trading Down 13.6%

NYSE ANET opened at $147.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $142.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.88. The company has a market capitalization of $185.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.37, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks has a 1-year low of $82.80 and a 1-year high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.23% and a net margin of 38.32%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $4,292,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,502,729 shares of company stock valued at $246,707,719 in the last 90 days. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at $1,558,563,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% during 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 during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised 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 raised 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. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,032,302,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934,098 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 beat — Arista reported Q1 revenue up ~35% YoY to $2.71B and EPS of $0.87 (vs. ~$0.81 consensus), underscoring robust AI/data‑center demand. Zacks: Arista Beats Q1
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 EPS guide modestly ahead — Management set Q2 EPS at $0.88, above street expectations, signaling continued profitability into the next quarter. Business Wire: Q1 Results & Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades/raises — Rosenblatt raised its price target to $210 and Needham reaffirmed a $185 target, reflecting continued bullish views on Arista’s AI networking exposure. Benzinga: Rosenblatt/Needham Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Consensus view stays constructive — Street consensus PT sits near $178.67 and the majority of analysts retain Buy/Outperform ratings, leaving longer‑term sentiment positive though expectations are high. AmericanBankingNews: Consensus PT
• Negative Sentiment: After‑hours sell‑off and volatility — The stock fell sharply in after‑hours trading despite the beat, indicating profit‑taking and disappointment versus elevated expectations. Yahoo: Stock Down After Beats
• Negative Sentiment: Margin/guidance nuance — Several outlets noted gross margin landed slightly below estimates and that guidance didn’t clearly beat on revenue/margins, which likely triggered short‑term selling. Seeking Alpha: Margin Note
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sale highlighted — Director Charles Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares under a pre‑arranged 10b5‑1 plan; while routine, such disclosures can weigh on sentiment in a volatile session. SEC: Insider Filing
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst PT tweak downward — Citigroup trimmed its PT from $176 to $173 (still a Buy), a modest hit to the high‑expectations backdrop. Benzinga: Citigroup PT Cut

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.