The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Price Target to $115.00

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) had its price objective lowered by The Goldman Sachs Group from $130.00 to $115.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on ANET. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Arista Networks from $140.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Arista Networks from $130.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on shares of Arista Networks from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Arista Networks in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.07.

Arista Networks Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE:ANET opened at $86.15 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $97.31. Arista Networks has a 52 week low of $59.43 and a 52 week high of $133.58. The stock has a market cap of $108.17 billion, a PE ratio of 38.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business’s revenue was up 27.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Arista Networks will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arista Networks announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 6th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John F. Mccool sold 17,433 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.14, for a total transaction of $1,623,709.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,623,709.62. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kelly Bodnar Battles sold 1,492 shares of Arista Networks stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.49, for a total transaction of $102,187.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,480 shares in the company, valued at $512,305.20. This represents a 16.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 412,355 shares of company stock worth $37,216,079 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Arista Networks

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Arista Networks by 304.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,084,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,620,270,000 after purchasing an additional 72,311,318 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $6,371,848,000 after purchasing an additional 44,269,572 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Arista Networks by 277.5% in the 4th 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 18,293,874 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Arista Networks by 218.5% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.47% of the company’s stock.

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.