Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 570.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 161,120 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 137,089 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $23,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Arista Networks by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,697,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its position in Arista Networks by 56.7% in the third quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 199 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Arista Networks by 2.4% in the third quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,175 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $463,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc raised its position in Arista Networks by 1.8% during the third quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 4,237 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stablepoint Partners LLC raised its position in Arista Networks by 0.8% during the second quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC now owns 9,406 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $962,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded ANET to Overweight and raised its price target (to $159), citing a “year of refresh” as hyperscalers shift capex from chips to network infrastructure (800G/1.6T adoption). The upgrade reinforces the consensus Buy posture and is being cited as a primary reason for recent upside momentum. Can ‘Year of Refresh’ Thesis Reignite Arista’s AI Growth Story?
• Neutral Sentiment: ANET posted a strong short-term move (a high-volume rally noted by Zacks), which signals investor interest and liquidity — but Zacks warns that recent earnings estimate revision trends may not sustain the move without confirmatory earnings/capex data. Momentum is present, but fundamentals and guidance will need to follow. Arista Networks (ANET) Moves 8.7% Higher: Will This Strength Last?
• Neutral Sentiment: General sector coverage highlights cloud and AI infrastructure as themes investors can use for exposure; this is background tailwind for Arista but not company-specific news that directly moves the stock. Treat as thematic support rather than a catalyst. Seeking Cloud Exposure? Use This Tool
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: SEC filings show Kenneth Duda sold shares in recent January transactions (two filings totalling ~56,000 shares at about $128.43 each). Insider sales can raise short-term caution among investors, especially given Arista’s customer concentration and high valuation. SEC Filing — Insider Sales

Analyst Ratings Changes

ANET has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler upgraded Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $159.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $183.00 price target (up from $179.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.44.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $136.30 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.43 and a 52-week high of $164.94. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $128.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.41.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 39.73% and a return on equity of 30.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 24,042 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.55, for a total value of $2,994,431.10. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,917 shares in the company, valued at $1,235,162.35. The trade was a 70.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.79, for a total transaction of $1,070,320.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at $2,379,321.36. The trade was a 31.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 216,464 shares of company stock valued at $27,687,068. Company insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

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.