Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 3.5% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) traded down 3.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $132.01 and last traded at $135.7880. 14,878,760 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 74% from the average session volume of 8,551,547 shares. The stock had previously closed at $140.66.

Arista Networks News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat — Arista reported EPS of $0.82 and revenue of $2.49B, both topping consensus, with healthy margins (net margin ~39.7%) — a clear fundamental positive. Arista Networks (ANET) Beats Q4 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management gave upbeat revenue guidance tied to accelerating AI-driven data center demand; Reuters notes Arista expects annual revenue above Street estimates and that comments drove a strong after?hours rally. Arista Networks forecasts upbeat revenue as AI speeding lifts demand, shares jump
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turned more constructive — Rosenblatt raised its price target and coverage commentary was bullish, supporting demand-side optimism. Rosenblatt Raises Price Target For Arista Networks (ANET)
• Positive Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: traders bought ~44,291 call options the day before earnings — a sign of speculative/hedged bullish positioning ahead of the print.
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate release and commentary — the official BusinessWire press release details Q4 and full?year results and highlights product/port milestones (helps validate long?term story but doesn’t change near?term math). Arista Networks, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Year End 2025 Financial Results
• Negative Sentiment: Forward detail/clarity issues — one guidance entry in the news feed showed garbled EPS guidance text (and some investors may have perceived the guidance as incomplete or lacking clear EPS targets), which can introduce short?term uncertainty.
• Negative Sentiment: Risks around AI exposure — coverage noting Arista’s growth tied to AI data centers also flagged evolving risks (competition, capex timing, concentration) that could make the stock more volatile as investors re?weight risk. Arista Networks Ties Growth To AI Data Centers Amid New Risks

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ANET shares. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $171.00 to $159.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $166.00.

Arista Networks Stock Down 3.5%

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $132.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The technology company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. Analysts predict that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,917 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,235,162.35. This represents a 70.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.16, for a total value of $3,694,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,598,124.16. This trade represents a 69.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,553,548 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 321.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,000 after buying an additional 5,955 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth $202,000. Bison Wealth LLC bought a new position in Arista Networks in the 4th quarter valued at $251,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 48.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,723 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 2,954 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.