Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Major Shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim Sells 240,000 Shares of Stock

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.06, for a total transaction of $39,134,400.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 331,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,111,134.88. This represents a 41.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Major shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Andreas Bechtolsheim also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 26th, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.86, for a total transaction of $34,509,200.00.
• On Friday, May 22nd, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 205,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.74, for a total transaction of $31,106,700.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Arista Networks stock opened at $156.32 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $151.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $139.13. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.58 and a fifty-two week high of $179.80. The company has a market capitalization of $196.83 billion, a PE ratio of 53.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.61.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The company’s 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, analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ANET. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $181.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.47.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. First National Bank of Mount Dora Trust Investment Services acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth $5,279,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 31.5% during the first quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,031 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 2,404 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 20.1% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 124,424 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,277,000 after purchasing an additional 20,797 shares in the last quarter. First Nebraska Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth $1,807,000. Finally, Financial Solutions Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter worth $404,000. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.