Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Down 4.2% After Insider Selling

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price traded down 4.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $162.59 and last traded at $166.0260. Approximately 8,958,718 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 8,744,290 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.28.

Specifically, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.06, for a total transaction of $1,336,480.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 192,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,131,150.98. This trade represents a 3.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.22, for a total value of $42,697,200.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 182,283,048 shares in the company, valued at $29,934,522,142.56. This trade represents a 0.14% 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on ANET shares. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective (up from $178.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Susquehanna upgraded Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $187.00 price target (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $195.00 price objective (up from $184.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.63.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $209.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.86, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a fifty day moving average of $159.07 and a 200 day moving average of $144.04.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks’s 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, equities research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,258,877,000 after buying an additional 1,188,799 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,154,570,000 after purchasing an additional 628,146 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Arista Networks by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after purchasing an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,563,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Arista Networks

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.