American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Stake in Arista Networks, Inc. $ANET

American Century Companies Inc. cut its stake in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 9.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,286,120 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 236,966 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.18% of Arista Networks worth $333,111,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Arista Networks in the second quarter worth $1,228,177,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 2,829.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,721,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $833,630,000 after acquiring an additional 5,525,828 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the 2nd quarter worth about $247,451,000. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 10,494,124 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,073,654,000 after acquiring an additional 1,350,593 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 282.9% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,549,486 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $158,528,000 after purchasing an additional 1,144,786 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Arista Networks

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish as Arista has meaningfully outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year, supporting buy-side conviction in its multi‑year growth runway. Is Arista Networks’ Stock Outperforming the S&P 500?
• Positive Sentiment: One analyst sees >50% upside as accelerating AI data‑center demand and Arista’s execution (switching, Ethernet for AI fabrics) could drive another leg of growth. This bullish note can attract momentum buyers. Why 1 Analyst Thinks Arista Networks Stock Can Still Gain Over 50% This Year
• Positive Sentiment: Arista 2.0 strategy (AI focus, SaaS offers and a 150M port deployment milestone) is gaining traction — supports upside potential from higher‑margin software and recurring‑revenue mix improvements. Arista 2.0 Strategy Picks Up Steam: Can ANET Ride This Wave?
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat expectations and management raised AI revenue guidance for FY‑2026, reinforcing Arista’s role in next‑gen cloud and AI infrastructure — a core fundamental support for the rally. Arista Networks (ANET) Is Down 5.1% After Raising 2026 AI Revenue Outlook And Beating Q4 Estimates – Has The Bull Case Changed?
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presentation at Bernstein Insights provides incremental color on strategy and roadmap (helpful for investors, but not an immediate catalyst). Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) Presents at Bernstein Insights
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat and guidance lift, the stock previously pulled back (~5%) as some investors rotated out on valuation concerns and to lock gains — this dynamic can cause volatility even with positive fundamentals. Arista Networks (ANET) Is Down 5.1% After Raising 2026 AI Revenue Outlook And Beating Q4 Estimates – Has The Bull Case Changed?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: a director sold 422 shares (~$54k) last week — a small position change but sometimes cited by traders as a near‑term weak signal. Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Director Kelly Bodnar Battles Sells 422 Shares

Arista Networks Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of ANET stock opened at $133.32 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $59.43 and a 12-month high of $164.94. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.36. The company has a market cap of $167.52 billion, a PE ratio of 48.30, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.42.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.38 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.37% and a net margin of 38.99%.The company’s revenue was up 28.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Arista Networks from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $178.00 price objective (up from $170.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.88.

Insider Transactions at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.43, for a total value of $1,123,440.00. Following the sale, the director owned 9,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,373,967.12. This represents a 44.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kenneth Duda sold 32,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.44, for a total transaction of $4,558,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,848,301.44. The trade was a 71.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 196,237 shares of company stock worth $25,861,120 over the last three months. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Arista Networks 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.