Bank of Nova Scotia Cuts Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

Bank of Nova Scotia lessened its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 857,037 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 14,176 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia owned 0.07% of Arista Networks worth $105,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lighthouse Financial Services Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,549,000. Bensler LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $6,350,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 169,613 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $22,224,000 after acquiring an additional 10,217 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 59.8% in the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,621 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,591 shares during the period. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,058,000. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arista Networks Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $176.53 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $164.31 and a 200-day moving average of $148.52. The company has a market cap of $222.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.60. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 52 week low of $112.80 and a 52 week high of $189.82.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.62 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 38.32% and a return on equity of 30.10%. Arista Networks’s revenue was up 35.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Arista Networks has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.880 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Andreas Bechtolsheim sold 260,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.57, for a total value of $43,048,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 182,543,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,223,652,457.36. The trade was a 0.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.08, for a total value of $4,482,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,678.08. This trade represents a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,264,983 shares of company stock worth $376,175,065. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Needham raised its price target on Arista Networks to $200 and maintained a Buy rating, signaling confidence in continued upside for the AI networking leader.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple recent articles highlight Arista as a beneficiary of expanding AI adoption, which supports the investment case for its data-center and enterprise networking products.
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage also pointed to Arista’s new AI-driven VeloCloud security solution and AI zero-trust branch platform, both of which could help expand enterprise demand and deepen its product mix. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Some commentary says Arista is still benefiting from strong 2026 momentum and may have more room to run after a strong first half of the year. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: One valuation-focused piece argued the stock looks fairly priced by discounted cash flow but expensive on traditional multiples, creating a mixed picture for investors. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several other items were largely commentary or ranking pieces that reinforce Arista’s growth reputation but do not introduce a major new catalyst. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price (up from $178.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $176.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $189.74.

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.