Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) CEO Sells $75,944,320.00 in Stock

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 428,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $75,944,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,209,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,321,690.08. The trade was a 7.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Jayshree Ullal also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, April 21st, Jayshree Ullal sold 93,861 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.57, for a total value of $15,822,148.77.
• On Monday, April 20th, Jayshree Ullal sold 306,139 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.31, for a total value of $51,220,116.09.
• On Thursday, April 16th, Jayshree Ullal sold 350,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.32, for a total value of $55,762,000.00.
• On Monday, April 13th, Jayshree Ullal sold 112,812 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.11, for a total value of $16,934,209.32.

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.4%

ANET stock traded up $4.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $176.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,505,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,814,208. The company has a market cap of $222.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.48. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $138.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $137.13. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $76.01 and a 12 month high of $179.80.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research raised Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $184.00 price objective (up from $183.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $177.83.

Arista Networks News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and media highlight Arista as a direct beneficiary of Google’s new “Virgo” AI datacenter architecture; that narrative helped lift momentum and contributed to new highs. Arista poised to benefit from Google’s Virgo
• Positive Sentiment: Company/analyst commentary says Arista materially raised its AI?networking market assumptions (effectively expanding the TAM), supporting higher forward multiples and investor willingness to pay a premium for AI exposure. Arista Doubles AI Networking Target
• Positive Sentiment: Street and research notes (Zacks and others) flag ANET as likely to top upcoming quarterly estimates as AI capex, 5G/fiber demand and datacenter upgrades lift networking spend — Q1 (May 5) is a potential catalyst for upgrades. 3 Telecom Stocks Likely to Surpass Q1 Earnings Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional accumulation and multiple analyst upgrades/price?target increases have driven liquidity and momentum into ANET, reinforcing the current uptrend. MarketBeat Arista coverage and analyst targets
• Neutral Sentiment: Several bullish writeups recap Arista’s market share in high?performance switching and AI networking; useful context for investors but reflect elevated expectations that increase the bar for surprises. Is Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) A Good Stock To Buy Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Significant insider selling by CEO Jayshree Ullal (multiple pre?arranged 10b5?1 sales totaling tens of millions over recent days) is generating selling pressure and negative headlines despite being scheduled trades. Jayshree Ullal Sells 93,861 Shares
• Negative Sentiment: Additional insider dispositions (EVP and other executives) amplify perception of management profit?taking and can increase short?term volatility into the earnings date. Kenneth Duda SEC filing

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,258,877,000 after buying an additional 1,188,799 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position 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 valued at $6,154,570,000 after buying an additional 628,146 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,455,095,000 after buying an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. 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.