Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 7.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)’s stock price shot up 7.3% during trading on Wednesday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $306.00 to $349.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as high as $295.12 and last traded at $294.04. 3,552,341 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 43% from the average session volume of 2,476,203 shares. The stock had previously closed at $273.99.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Arista Networks from $268.00 to $302.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Friday, April 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total value of $5,686,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $922,301.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total value of $5,686,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $922,301.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 87,418 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.81, for a total value of $24,373,012.58. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,929,639.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 337,054 shares of company stock valued at $96,529,086 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Arista Networks

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Arista Networks by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,494,876 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,946,338,000 after buying an additional 1,596,040 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Arista Networks by 32.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,318,633 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,897,906,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,864 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Arista Networks by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 10,136,348 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,387,211,000 after purchasing an additional 55,312 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 0.8% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,049,416 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $884,270,000 after buying an additional 25,196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth about $586,051,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $279.22 and a 200-day moving average of $251.25. The stock has a market cap of $91.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.39, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Arista Networks announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.20 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.