Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 193,479 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,471,872 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 193,479 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $192,859,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 16,085 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,133,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 6,311 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $827,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its position in Arista Networks by 0.9% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 8,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,219,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 2,429 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yvonne Wassenaar sold 1,395 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.07, for a total value of $213,532.65. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,497,636.88. The trade was a 12.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.40, for a total transaction of $1,403,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 208,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,541,608.20. The trade was a 3.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,502,729 shares of company stock worth $246,707,719. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 beats — Arista posted $0.87 EPS vs. ~$0.81 consensus and revenue of $2.71B (?+35% YoY), showing robust demand for AI/data-center networking which supports longer-term growth expectations. Zacks: Arista Beats Q1
• Positive Sentiment: Q2 EPS guide modestly ahead — management set Q2 EPS at $0.88, above street EPS expectations, suggesting continued profitability and revenue momentum into the next quarter. Business Wire: Q1 Results & Guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/media coverage and sentiment — wide coverage (CNBC, Yahoo, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga) highlights both the beat and market reaction; notable commentators (e.g., Jim Cramer) remain bullish on ANET’s AI exposure, which supports interest from growth investors. CNBC: After-Hours Movers
• Negative Sentiment: Gross-margin and guidance nuance — Seeking Alpha and other outlets flagged gross margin landing just below estimates and guidance that, while positive on EPS, wasn’t a clear upside surprise on revenue/margins; that nuance appears to have triggered profit-taking. Seeking Alpha: Margin Note
• Negative Sentiment: After-hours weakness and volatility — multiple outlets report the stock fell sharply in after-hours trading despite the beat, reflecting short-term selling pressure and high expectations baked into ANET’s valuation. Yahoo: Stock Down After Beats
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sale noted — Director Charles Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares under a 10b5?1 plan; while pre-arranged plans are common and not inherently material, some investors treat insider sales as a near-term negative signal. InsiderTrades: Director Sale

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ANET shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $161.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $175.00 price target (up from $159.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Susquehanna raised shares of Arista Networks to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $178.67.

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.4%

ANET opened at $170.18 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $214.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.66, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.67. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $82.80 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $142.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.87.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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 predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

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.