Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Up 4% – Here’s What Happened

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shot up 4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $120.18 and last traded at $119.89. 3,503,869 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 8,781,294 shares. The stock had previously closed at $115.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Arista Networks from $97.50 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com lowered Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $92.25 to $106.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.83.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $112.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.58. The company has a market capitalization of $149.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John F. Mccool sold 6,340 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.58, for a total value of $625,013.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,391.76. This represents a 95.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.29, for a total transaction of $8,663,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,171.04. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 255,832 shares of company stock worth $28,538,497. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANET. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter worth about $291,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Arista Networks by 317.0% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 205,984 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $22,767,000 after purchasing an additional 156,592 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Research LLC acquired a new position in Arista Networks during the 4th quarter worth $31,583,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in Arista Networks by 457.6% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 333,702 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,884,000 after buying an additional 273,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 368.9% in the 4th quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 2,865 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $317,000 after buying an additional 2,254 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.