Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Shares Up 1.7% – Here’s Why

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were up 1.7% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $115.78 and last traded at $114.19. Approximately 1,811,528 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 8,972,675 shares. The stock had previously closed at $112.32.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ANET. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Arista Networks from $102.50 to $118.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $495.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.83.

Arista Networks Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $149.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.98, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $112.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.58.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. Arista Networks’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Arista Networks

In other Arista Networks news, CEO Jayshree Ullal sold 71,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.06, for a total value of $7,107,506.98. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 70,724 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,076,289.82. This trade represents a 50.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.65, for a total transaction of $825,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 42,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,721,666.90. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 255,832 shares of company stock worth $28,538,497. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANET. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Arista Networks by 293.2% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 6,750,793 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $746,165,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,022 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Arista Networks by 320.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,457,263 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $713,721,000 after purchasing an additional 4,919,882 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Arista Networks by 294.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,136,864 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $678,308,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579,622 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its position in Arista Networks by 292.8% in the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 6,053,181 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $674,627,000 after purchasing an additional 4,512,166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in Arista Networks by 196.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,342,064 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $732,493,000 after acquiring an additional 4,201,973 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.