BNP Paribas Exane Upgrades Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) to Strong-Buy

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) was upgraded by research analysts at BNP Paribas Exane to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up from $200.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $250.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 price target (up from $190.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $240.00 price objective (up from $181.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $210.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.45.

Arista Networks Trading Down 5.1%

ANET stock opened at $185.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $198.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.33. Arista Networks has a 1 year low of $114.52 and a 1 year high of $217.41. The stock has a market cap of $234.00 billion, a PE ratio of 58.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.60.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.13. The company 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%. Arista Networks’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.080 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kenneth Duda sold 17,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.50, for a total transaction of $3,527,265.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,640,616. This represents a 57.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chantelle Breithaupt sold 1,224 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.00, for a total value of $263,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 68,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,769,855. This trade represents a 1.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 3,627,449 shares of company stock valued at $740,784,723 in the last quarter. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. ABS Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at $29,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC acquired a new stake in Arista Networks in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 184.9% in the 1st quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 245 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc develops and sells cloud networking solutions for data centers, campus environments and high-performance computing applications. Its products include Ethernet switches, routers, wireless access points and related networking equipment designed to support cloud computing, artificial intelligence, enterprise and service-provider networks.

The company’s software portfolio includes Arista EOS, its network operating system, and CloudVision, a platform that helps customers manage, automate and monitor network infrastructure.