Smith Group Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Smith Group Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 6.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 404,287 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,967 shares during the period. Arista Networks makes up 2.5% of Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Smith Group Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $49,638,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,558,563,000. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 3,182.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 4,012,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $525,741,000 after purchasing an additional 3,890,146 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Arista Networks by 59.3% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,878,360 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,032,302,000 after purchasing an additional 2,934,098 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in Arista Networks by 86.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $198,285,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Arista Networks to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $189.74.

Key Stories Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive ahead of Arista’s quarterly report, expected in early August. Positive earnings-estimate revisions, a favorable Zacks Rank and expectations for an earnings beat have increased optimism about the company’s outlook. Arista Networks on rising earnings optimism
• Positive Sentiment: Strong results from optical, cloud-connectivity and AI-exposed peers—including Corning, Sanmina and Celestica—provide favorable evidence of continued data-center and AI infrastructure spending, a key demand driver for Arista’s networking products. Corning beats second-quarter estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: A comparison with Advanced Micro Devices suggests Arista may offer stronger profitability and a more attractive relative valuation, although the article still characterizes Arista as expensive and highlights its reliance on a concentrated customer base as an important risk. AMD versus Arista Networks comparison
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista recently underperformed some technology competitors, indicating that investors may be taking a more selective approach despite the broader AI infrastructure theme. Arista Networks underperforms competitors
• Negative Sentiment: Director Kenneth Duda disclosed two sales totaling 43,333 shares at approximately $170.51 per share. Both transactions were executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing the immediate signal of discretionary selling, but the sales can still weigh on sentiment.
• Negative Sentiment: With Arista trading at a high earnings multiple, investors may demand another strong earnings beat and upbeat guidance. Any disappointment or evidence of customer-concentration risk could prompt profit-taking after the stock’s recent gains.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 234,578 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.18, for a total transaction of $43,908,310.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 5,134,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $961,020,866.26. This represents a 4.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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, insider Kenneth Duda sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.51, for a total transaction of $4,433,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 462,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,843,824. The trade was a 5.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders have sold 2,308,316 shares of company stock worth $383,563,775 in the last ninety days. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of ANET opened at $169.47 on Wednesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.52 and a 52 week high of $189.82. The firm has a market cap of $213.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.04, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $166.08 and a 200-day moving average of $149.32.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.