Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 1.6% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) rose 1.6% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $202.27 and last traded at $202.05. Approximately 5,585,497 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 35% from the average session volume of 8,605,053 shares. The stock had previously closed at $198.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on ANET shares. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $175.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $259.00 target price (up from $187.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $255.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.05.

Arista Networks Stock Down 4.6%

The company has a market cap of $242.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.60. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $175.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $155.48.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.37% and a return on equity of 30.65%. The business had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. Analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total transaction of $60,990,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 181,143,048 shares in the company, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. This represents a 0.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.22, for a total value of $154,341,575.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 16,387,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,297,589,536.82. This represents a 4.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 three months, insiders have sold 4,334,197 shares of company stock valued at $798,500,786. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Archer Investment Corp acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the second quarter worth approximately $45,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at approximately $68,741,000. Strive Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 289.3% in the second quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC now owns 3,842 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 2,855 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 16.2% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 269,727 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,815,000 after acquiring an additional 37,580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in Arista Networks during the second quarter worth $57,833,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.