Essex Financial Services Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Essex Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 195.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,639 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,055 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,001,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ANET. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter worth approximately $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 48.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 31.3% in the 2nd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 4,193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $164.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $188.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $185.72.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.44, for a total transaction of $61,797.68. Following the sale, the director owned 10,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,822.32. This trade represents a 4.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 13,809 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.04, for a total transaction of $2,140,947.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,531.68. The trade was a 58.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,935,142 shares of company stock worth $313,589,223. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks Trading Up 7.2%

ANET opened at $170.91 on Tuesday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.58 and a 12-month high of $179.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.20 billion, a PE ratio of 58.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $148.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.86.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 EPS 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.