Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 4.6% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price dropped 4.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $154.74 and last traded at $157.7990. 11,756,681 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 35% from the average session volume of 8,739,146 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.45.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Susquehanna upgraded Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Arista Networks to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Zacks Research cut shares of Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two research 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, Arista Networks has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $187.63.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $198.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.04, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $159.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $142.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CFO Chantelle Yvette Breithaupt sold 2,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.00, for a total value of $384,336.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 64,408 shares in the company, valued at $10,112,056. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.04, for a total value of $2,140,947.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,531.68. The trade was a 58.20% 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,647,080 shares of company stock worth $431,329,762. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 82.5% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,587,115 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,396,939,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332,659 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in 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 period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 59.3% in 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 period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Arista Networks by 86.0% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,240,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $520,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,960,829 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.