Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Trading Down 0.8% After Analyst Downgrade

Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) shares were down 0.8% on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $140.00 to $110.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Arista Networks traded as low as $69.13 and last traded at $72.60. Approximately 1,857,192 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 11,274,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.20.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on ANET. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arista Networks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arista Networks news, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $9,248,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,500,155.36. The trade was a 86.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marc Taxay sold 51,848 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.59, for a total value of $4,593,214.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 411,031 shares of company stock worth $39,364,943. 3.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arista Networks

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

Arista Networks Trading Down 1.1 %

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.44. The stock has a market cap of $89.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.03, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.