Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Needham & Company LLC Analyst Says

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $165.00 to $185.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 36.24% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $167.63.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.5%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $135.79 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.70. The company has a market cap of $171.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.42. Arista Networks has a twelve month low of $59.43 and a twelve month high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.07. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 39.73%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total value of $1,123,440.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total transaction of $2,994,431.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,553,548 over the last ninety days. 3.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bare Financial Services Inc grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 2,118.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 244 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 56.7% during the 3rd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Ameliora Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Key Arista Networks News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beats — Arista posted $0.82 EPS vs. $0.75 consensus and revenue of $2.49B (up ~29% YoY), underscoring strong demand and healthy margins. Business Wire: Q4 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Upbeat guidance — management provided revenue guidance above Street estimates (company cited roughly $2.6B for the coming period and an annual revenue outlook that exceeded Wall Street views), driven by AI/data‑center demand. This pushed shares sharply higher in extended trading after the print. Reuters: Forecast, Guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support — Rosenblatt and other brokers raised price targets and reiterated bullish views ahead of/after the quarter, reinforcing upside narrative for the stock. Yahoo Finance: Rosenblatt PT Raise
• Neutral Sentiment: Options flow — unusually large options activity (notably elevated call volume) signaled speculative positioning and/or hedging around the earnings move; this can amplify intraday swings but is ambiguous for longer-term direction. American Banking News: Options Volume
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call transparency — the full Q4 earnings call transcript and commentary are available; management reiterated confidence in AI-driven demand (useful for modeling but not a new catalyst). Seeking Alpha: Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Short-term volatility / profit-taking — after a ~17% extended‑hours rally on the upbeat report and guidance, the stock pulled back in regular trading as traders locked gains and large options positions increased intraday pressure; that sequence explains why shares are down today despite fundamentally strong results. Benzinga: Post‑Earnings Rally & Volatility

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.