M&G PLC Sells 138,256 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

M&G PLC cut its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 86.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,519 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 138,256 shares during the period. M&G PLC’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $2,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ANET. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 19.8% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 613,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,519,000 after acquiring an additional 101,162 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the first quarter valued at about $15,227,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 94.8% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 650,011 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,363,000 after purchasing an additional 316,309 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 13.7% in the first quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 25,625 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,985,000 after buying an additional 3,079 shares during the period. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 99.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 40,428 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,136,000 after buying an additional 20,141 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on ANET. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $172.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Melius Research lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Arista Networks from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $171.00 price objective on Arista Networks and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.31.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET stock opened at $130.13 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $146.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.11. The company has a market cap of $163.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.48. Arista Networks, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.43 and a fifty-two week high of $164.94.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 31.05% and a net margin of 40.90%.The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. Arista Networks has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.75, for a total transaction of $4,282,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,324. This trade represents a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 1,247,688 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.53, for a total transaction of $185,319,098.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 5,383,207 shares in the company, valued at $799,567,735.71. This represents a 18.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,009,040 shares of company stock worth $294,365,034. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.