Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) to Buyback $1.20 billion in Stock

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.20 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ANET shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Arista Networks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $240.00 to $320.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Arista Networks from $297.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Arista Networks from $311.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arista Networks presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $293.00.

Arista Networks Stock Performance

Shares of Arista Networks stock opened at $296.19 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $279.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $251.54. Arista Networks has a 52 week low of $133.42 and a 52 week high of $307.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.60 billion, a PE ratio of 45.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.13.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.38. Arista Networks had a net margin of 35.62% and a return on equity of 31.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Arista Networks will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In related news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction of $5,686,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 available through this link. In other Arista Networks news, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 356 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.91, for a total transaction of $97,867.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,570 shares in the company, valued at $706,518.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.31, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 337,410 shares of company stock valued at $96,626,954 in the last 90 days. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.