Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Up 0.6% – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares rose 0.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $121.86 and last traded at $120.67. Approximately 1,153,233 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,778,666 shares. The stock had previously closed at $119.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANET has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on Arista Networks from $96.25 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on Arista Networks from $66.25 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $109.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.69. The stock has a market cap of $162.45 billion, a PE ratio of 62.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 30.52% and a net margin of 40.29%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.09, for a total value of $8,407,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at $1,363,647.84. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John F. Mccool sold 2,336 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.83, for a total value of $226,200.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,887.76. This trade represents a 89.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 343,824 shares of company stock worth $37,614,089. Corporate insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 6.9% during the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 417 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.4% during the third quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 1,927 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 4.3% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 682 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 0.5% during the third quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,250,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 1.5% during the third quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,907 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $732,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Arista Networks

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.