Insider Selling: Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Major Shareholder Sells $39,040,800.00 in Stock

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.67, for a total value of $39,040,800.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 182,043,048 shares in the company, valued at $29,612,942,618.16. The trade was a 0.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Major shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

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

• On Wednesday, July 1st, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.22, for a total value of $42,697,200.00.
• On Monday, June 15th, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total transaction of $43,048,200.00.
• On Friday, June 5th, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 220,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.93, for a total transaction of $34,744,600.00.
• On Thursday, June 4th, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 240,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.06, for a total value of $39,134,400.00.
• 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 value of $34,509,200.00.
• On Friday, May 22nd, Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 205,000 shares of Arista Networks stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.74, for a total value of $31,106,700.00.

Arista Networks Price Performance

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $184.15 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a one year low of $102.68 and a one year high of $189.82. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $145.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.06. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.10% and a net margin of 38.32%.The firm had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Several recent reports highlight Arista as a beneficiary of the AI buildout, with demand for high-speed networking gear tied to expanding data center capacity.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment remains constructive, with analysts mostly rating ANET a Buy and some raising price targets, suggesting expectations for continued growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Investor interest remains strong, including unusual call option activity and reports of the stock reaching new highs on AI momentum.
• Neutral Sentiment: Arista is scheduled to report Q2 2026 results on August 4, which keeps attention on upcoming earnings but is not an immediate catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling by major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim, along with another sale by Director Charles Giancarlo, could weigh on sentiment even though the transactions were pre-planned under 10b5-1 arrangements.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 101,189,629 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $13,258,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,188,799 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,970,697 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,154,570,000 after purchasing an additional 628,146 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,171,766 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,870,618,000 after buying an additional 380,724 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,447,629 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,455,095,000 after acquiring an additional 477,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,558,563,000. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research lowered Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $187.00 price target (up from $177.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Arista Networks from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $187.63.

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.