Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 5.5% – Time to Sell?

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s share price traded down 5.5% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $81.12 and last traded at $82.20. 3,576,039 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 58% from the average session volume of 8,545,964 shares. The stock had previously closed at $86.94.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANET has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Down 6.9 %

The business has a 50 day moving average of $101.47 and a 200 day moving average of $101.98. The company has a market capitalization of $102.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.08.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total value of $9,477,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % 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, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.13, for a total transaction of $159,409.44. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,128 shares in the company, valued at $870,752.64. This trade represents a 15.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $49,112,111 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 304.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 330.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,648,129 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,371,848,000 after buying an additional 44,269,572 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Arista Networks by 277.5% during the fourth quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 27,288,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,016,207,000 after acquiring an additional 20,059,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Arista Networks by 311.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,165,355 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,665,829,000 after acquiring an additional 18,293,874 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 21,070,016 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,328,869,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Company Profile

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.