Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 4.6% – Should You Sell?

Posted by Geri Gentry on Aug 20th, 2026

Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET – Get Free Report) were down 4.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $189.67 and last traded at $192.6130. 8,878,850 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 3% from the average session volume of 8,591,868 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.80.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on ANET shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Arista Networks to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Arista Networks from $210.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Arista Networks from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $226.05.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on Arista Networks

Arista Networks Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $233.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.60. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.75.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.65% and a net margin of 38.37%.The company’s revenue was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.73 EPS. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast 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, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 767,029 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 16,387,981 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,297,589,536.82. The trade was a 4.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.30, for a total value of $60,990,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 181,143,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,826,381,658.40. The trade was a 0.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,333,775 shares of company stock valued at $798,438,989. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $1,549,000. Bensler LLC bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,350,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $22,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,217 shares in the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,058,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Arista Networks by 59.8% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,621 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,591 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

(Get Free Report)

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.