Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Given New $173.00 Price Target at Citigroup

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its target price lowered by analysts at Citigroup from $176.00 to $173.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.65% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on ANET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Zacks Research upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $184.00 price objective (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.22.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of ANET stock traded down $28.01 on Wednesday, hitting $142.21. 25,525,296 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,037,185. The company has a 50 day moving average of $142.59 and a 200 day moving average of $137.87. The stock has a market cap of $179.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks has a 12 month low of $82.80 and a 12 month high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $75,944,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were 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 directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,600.64. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719. 3.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

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

Key Headlines Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 beat on revenue and EPS — Arista reported $0.87 EPS and revenue of $2.71B (+35% YoY), driven by AI/data-center demand, which supports the company’s longer-term growth story. Zacks: Arista Q1 Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 EPS guide modestly above consensus — Management set Q2 EPS at $0.88 (above the street), signaling continued profitability and revenue momentum into the next quarter. That guidance gives a floor to near-term expectations. Business Wire: Q1 Results & Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and price-target increases — Several brokers reaffirmed/raised ratings (e.g., Needham, Evercore) and Rosenblatt hiked its PT to $210, supplying buy-side validation that longer-term upside remains. Benzinga: Analyst Actions
• Neutral Sentiment: Product/AI positioning highlighted — The company rolled out new AI-focused data-center products (liquid-cooled optics, AI spine), reinforcing strategy but with benefits that will materialize over time rather than immediately. Yahoo: AI Growth Story
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/newsflow — broader market moves (oil, geopolitical headlines) have lifted futures and add background noise, but they’re not the primary driver of ANET’s intra-day move. Yahoo: Markets Pre-Bell
• Negative Sentiment: Profit-taking after a high bar — despite the beat, investors sold in after?hours/early trading because the quarter had been priced for perfection; the stock’s rich valuation amplified the pullback. Yahoo: Stock Down After Beats
• Negative Sentiment: Margins and guidance nuance — outlets flagged gross margin slightly below estimates and guidance that, while supportive on EPS, did not materially exceed consensus on revenue/margin upside, prompting concern about near-term margin pressure. Seeking Alpha: Margin Note
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts flag supply/lead-time risk and inventory dynamics — some commentary suggests supply constraints and timing of customer deployments could create near-term variability in shipments and revenue recognition. Seeking Alpha: Supply Concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sale noted — a director sold shares under a 10b5?1 plan; common but sometimes interpreted negatively by short?term traders. SEC Filing: Insider Sale

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.