William Blair Raises Earnings Estimates for Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) – Investment analysts at William Blair raised their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Arista Networks in a report issued on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair analyst S. Naji now expects that the technology company will post earnings of $2.17 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $2.16. The consensus estimate for Arista Networks’ current full-year earnings is $2.18 per share.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Arista Networks from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.79.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

ANET stock opened at $103.47 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $113.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.57. Arista Networks has a fifty-two week low of $60.08 and a fifty-two week high of $133.57. The company has a market cap of $130.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.09.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 288 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.70, for a total value of $31,305.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total value of $825,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 42,946 shares in the company, valued at $17,721,666.90. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 259,944 shares of company stock valued at $30,214,186 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after buying an additional 72,311,318 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 330.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,371,848,000 after acquiring an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,328,869,000 after acquiring an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.